The Bay steal the chocolates at Claremont
A Premier Division report for The Mercury by Peter Kirby
In the match of the round of Bowls South’s Leumas Accounting Saturday Pennant Premier Division between the top two sides on a very good green at Claremont, Sandy Bay were the victors, and still ladder leaders, winning on three rinks by twenty-two shots, 91-69.
Sandy Bay started well to lead by ten shots after sixteen ends, with Sandy Bay’s Keghan Booth and his team of Stewart Cashion, Phil Hobbs and Josh Mabb leading the way, having won the first four ends to lead 7-0 against Claremont’s experienced skip, Mick Taylor.
After 40 ends Sandy Bay were in front by seven shots. Claremont’s Mick Taylor and his team of Kevin Raby, Tony Smith and Dean Shaw won four consecutive ends to pick up eight shots against Booth to keep the home team in the game. Booth prevailed in the end, defeating Taylor by six shots, 22-16.
Sandy Bay’s Josh Lording and his team of Tony Rowe, Kyron Daly and Lucas Howell picked up a total of ten shots on the eleventh and twelfth ends to come from 8-11 down to lead 18-11 after 12 ends in their game against the Claremont rink skipped by Adam Taylor, extending Sandy Bay’s lead to thirteen shots after forty-eight ends.
Adam Taylor and his team of Nick Evans, David Howard and Paul Grover secured a rink win for the home side, coming back from 13-20 down after sixteen ends to win the last two ends to succeed by two shots, 23-21, in a game that had many twists and turns.
After sixty-four ends, Sandy Bay had gained a match-winning lead of twenty-six shots, with Alby Norris and his team of James Howell, Rohan Cooper and Ryan McCoull the major contributor having picked up a total of eleven shots from the fourteenth to sixteenth ends to be fourteen shots in front of Claremont’s Paul Hart, 23-9. Norris went on to win this game by seven shots, 25-18, after Hart and his team of Jason Pullen, Trudy Davis and Nick Chilcott won four of the last five ends.
Any hopes of a Claremont victory were snuffed out by Sandy Bay’s Justin Plummer who played some huge conversion shots over the last five ends to lead his team to a 23-12 win over John McDonald, after leading by one shot after sixteen ends, in a game that had been a tight contest up to that point.
The two leads in this game, Sandy Bay’s Peri Buckley and Claremont’s Phil Brown, both bowled well for their teams, with Sandy Bay’s Bryce Guy very consistent over the whole game in the three-position for Plummer, who excelled late in the game against his former club.
The highlight of the game was the very good grass surface on which it was played and full credit to the Claremont green keeper for his role in producing a high standard game between the two sides.
In a disappointing day for the home side, Glenorchy Rodman failed to win a rink against a rampant Kingborough outfit, with the visitors bouncing back from recent losses to win overall by thirty shots, 66-96. In a consistent performance from Ryan Guy-Rees’ rink, who won twelve of the first fifteen ends played against Rodman’s Rod Turner, to set up a 21-5 lead. Turner enjoyed a mini resurgence, picking up a four and a three on the next two ends, bringing them back into the game, but the damage had been done by Guy-Rees, who triumphed by six shots, 22-15.
In a great team performance, with Treb O’Neill excellent in the three-spot, Will Coad’s Kingborough rink added multiples to their score consistently to pull away from Anthony Clifford, winning by thirteen shots, 27-14. Coad allowed Clifford to take the first two ends, and then swung into action, winning the next seven ends to lead Clifford by nine shots. Clifford was unable to recover from the onslaught, conceding a five to Coad on the eleventh end to slip further behind, with a win to Coad never in doubt.
Nathan Dinning took advantage of a poor performance from the Rodman rink skipped by Cam Tegg in another masterful effort. The game was set up by Dinning’s front end pair of Callum Dinning (lead) and Mark Burgess (two), allowing Dinning and his three, Jarrod Long, to position bowls for coverage, with the Dinning rink slowly pulling away. Tegg was in the contest early, but the persistent pressure applied by the Kingborough rink had them ten up after twelve ends. Tegg was able to make slight inroads into Dinning’s lead but not enough to stop the Kingborough skip from claiming a seven-shot victory, 25-18.
It was close early in the game between Kingborough’s Jason “Captain” Fowler and Rodman’s Grant Allford until Allford gained the ascendancy with a four and a five on consecutive ends to lead by ten shots after eleven ends. From there the Fowler rink dug deep to start clawing their way back into the contest. One down going into the last end, Cap played a huge running shot to get the jack near the ditch to go from two down in the head to three-up. With room to draw, Allford didn’t quite manage to cut down the count with his bowl and Cap drew another in true style to get a four and win the rink by three shots, 22-19.
There will be some soul-searching for the home side who gave themselves a chance against Kingborough and now have to face Sandy Bay at the Bay next week.
Dover showed a particular liking for Howrah’s indoor surface, winning on three rinks but scraping home by a single shot overall, 84-83. Peter Jenkins all but snatched victory for the hosts, defeating Dover’s Jarrah Allan by twelve shots, 27-15.
Dover’s Brad Carver had a good ten-shot win over Howrah’s Steven Hyland, 22-12, and Chris “Nogga” Norris’s two-shot success against Howrah’s Bill Butler, 29-27, had the two sides all-square. Dover’s Cam Norris sealed his side’s victory with his one-shot margin over Howrah’s Adam Butler, 18-17.
Despite establishing a significant early lead over Rosny Park, Buckingham again fell short at home, with Rosny prevailing on all rinks, forty-one shots up, 99-58. Peter Bannister led the way for Rosny with a sixteen-shot win over Craig Owen, 30-14.
Darren Monks had a handy eleven-shot win against Bucks’ George Kovacs, 30-19, while Rosny’s other skips defeated their Bucks opponents by the same seven-shot margin, Andrew Blake, 19-12, over Alvin Cooke, and Nic Courto, 20-13, against Stuart Rees.
It was another day of misery for the beach boys at home, the visiting side, Brighton, cleaned up on all rinks, twenty-seven shots up, 97-70. Grant Wakefield had Cremorne’s Peter “Tex” Marshall shooting blanks, winning their contest by ten shots, 28-18.
Matt Breward gave strong support, beating Cremorne’s Ashley Banks by nine shots, 27-18. Mick Daniels pressed Cremorne’s Phil Ions relentlessly for a seven-shot win, 20-13, and in the contest between young and old, it was the youngster, Brighton’s Riley Davie, who triumphed over Cremorne’s veteran skip, Pat Hoffman, by one shot, 22-21.