Kingborough win Premier Division Pennant
A report for The Mercury by Peter Kirby
Kingborough claimed their fifth Bowls South Divergence Built Premier Division Pennant in eight years, and second in succession with an emphatic all-rinks defeat of Sandy Bay by 48 shots, 103-55, at the Beltana Bowls Club on Saturday.
In a match that was predicted to be close, and with Sandy Bay bolstering its side with a number of key late-season signings, there was an expectation of a close contest, unfortunately, Sandy Bay was just not good enough on the day to match it with a strong Kingborough side whose players were determined, focused and playing at the top of their form.
Kingborough deserved to be favourites to take out the Pennant, having finished the Pennant roster season twenty-two points clear at the top of the table, and with its four skips finishing no less than seventh on the skips’ ladder.
In a commanding performance, top skip, Nic Courto, led Sandy Bay’s Josh Lording 11-0 after three ends, claiming two fives. Lording was given little chance to gain any advantage with Courto able to win a number of big scoring ends to lead 23-7 after 11 ends. The last ten ends of the match were an anti-climax, lording unable to make any inroads, and Courto in cruise mode to finish 18 shots up, 31-13.
Jason Fowler was in control of his match with Sandy Bay’s Lachie Sims from the outset, keeping Sims scoreless for five ends in succession while slowly building to an eleven-shot lead. Sims and his team were restricted to four winning ends over the second half of the match, each being a one-shot gain, while Fowler added ten shots to his tally for a seventeen-shot advantage at the end, 27-10.
Sandy Bay’s Josh Mabb started strongly against Ryan Guy-Rees to lead 7-1 after three ends, but Guy-Rees picked up a five on the tenth end to level the scores. From thereon, Guy-Rees had control of the match, extending his lead over Mabb to close out nine shots ahead, 29-20.
In the closest contest of the day, the match up of Kingborough’s Will Coad and Sandy Bay’s Andrew Norris saw the lead change four times over the course of the game. With Norris leading 12-10 after the fifteenth end, Coad gained the ascendency to win five ends in succession to lead by 4 shots, 16-12, after the 20th end. With no hope of victory for his side, Norris conceded the match to Coad with one end to play.
Kingborough now has the opportunity to contest Bowls Tasmania’s State Pennant Finals in Launceston next weekend, taking on the winners of Bowls North’s and Bowls North’s Premier Division Pennant winners.
Pennant winners in the other Divisions were:
- Division 1: Rosny Park
- Division 2: Franklin
- Division 3: Glenorchy Rodman
- Division 4: Claremont
- Division 5: Howrah
- Division 6: Howrah1
- Division 7: Geeveston