Southern Sides Clean up in State Playoffs
A report for The Mercury by Peter Kirby
In a fantastic end to the bowls season, four of the six Southern sides that contested Bowls Tasmania’s State Pennant Finals in Launceston over the weekend won their Division State Pennant, led by Bowls South’s Divergence Built Premier Division Pennant winners, Kingborough, who overcame a disappointing 8-shot loss to Port Sorell on Saturday, to annihilate Longford, 71-42, on Sunday to avenge their loss to the same side in last year’s State Pennant Final.
The three sides contesting the Premier Division State Pennant Final, Longford, Port Sorell and Kingborough, all won one game each, and the overall result came down to which side finished with the best shots difference for and against.
Longford had a slim two-shot advantage over Port Sorell, 61-59, in their contest on Saturday morning, which meant that Port Sorell, would play again in the afternoon against Kingborough. Port Sorell’s knowledge of the green played in their favour against Kingborough, winning on two rinks by eight shots, 65-57.
This put Port Sorell in the leading position with a +6-shot advantage, with Longford needing to win its match against Kingborough, while Kingborough needed to win by at least fifteen shots to have any chance of taking the title.
Longford’s Daniel Baker would have been feeling quite comfortable after six ends, leading Will Coad, 9-4. From there, Coad won 13 of the 15 ends remaining to be played, picking up twenty-seven shots to Baker’s two to take out the match, 30-11. This result, on its own would be enough for Kingborough to claim the title.
The match between Kingborough’s Jason Fowler and Longford’s Mark Strochnetter could have gone either way, with the scores, 14-12, in Fowler’s favour after seventeen ends, except for a four-end surge to the finish by Fowler, which gained him a furth six shots to close out the match eight shots up, 20-12.
The third rink contest between Kingborough’s Nic Courto and Longford’s Jarrod Howard appeared to be going Longford’s way after sixteen ends, with Howard leading by six shots, 19-12. Tis was where Howard’s gains ended, with Courto finishing the stronger, winning each of the final four ends played to pick up ten shots, leading to two-shot win for Courto, 21-19. A four on the final end sealed the all-rinks win for Kingborough, and the State Pennant title for the Bowls South Premier Division champions.
Overall, it was the best result for Southern sides for many years, with Rosny Park undefeated to win the Division 1 State Pennant, with wins against Kings Meadows, 72-31, Saturday afternoon, and finishing 24 shots up on Ulverstone, 72-48.
In the Division 2 State Pennant, Franklin also went through undefeated to take the pennant, defeating Sheffield, 65-51, on Saturday, then winning their Sunday match against Exeter, 66-37. Brad John’s rink of Craig Triffitt, Peter Clark and David Welling put the result beyond doubt, winning their match against Exeter’s Tony Booth by 29 shots, 34-5, which was the difference between the two sides.
Perennial Division 3 State Pennant winner, Scamander, did it again this year, but the result was much closer than in previous years. Scamander and Glenorchy Rodman finished with two wins each, but the shots difference fell in Scamander’s favour by a massive 31 shots.
Only two sides contested the Division 4 State Pennant Final, with Claremont choosing not to accept Bowls Tasmania’s invitation to participate. As a result, only one match was required to decide the Pennant winner, with North Launceston defeating Sheffield by 26 shots, 75-49.
Howrah became Bowls South’s fourth State Pennant winner, taking out the Division 5 Pennant undefeated beating Burnie Saturday afternoon, 68-49, and following up with a 14-shot win over Deloraine Sunday morning, 77-63.
The Division 6 State Pennant Final had only two sides entered as Bowls North-West does not conduct a Division 6 pennant competition. Lilydale took out the Pennant Final Saturday afternoon by 7 shots against Howrah, 58-51, even though Howrah won on two of the three rinks.