The travellers enjoy success on foreign fields
A Saturday Division 1 report for The Mercury by Peter Kirby
Visiting sides were successful in four of the matches in last Saturday’s round of Bowls South’s Saturday Pennant Division One. In a thrilling finish at Sorell, Franklin came away with an important three-rink win by one shot, 82-81. The home side started strongly, with the visitors storming home to win a thriller, with no skip winning by more than two shots.
Wayne Clark’s Franklin rink started well to lead early before The den Tsang fought back. Clark steadied to lead by seven going into the final end, before a six to Sorell saw the end result a win to Clark by one shot, 24-23.
Allan Bannister and Sorell’s Andre Legosz had a classic arm wrestle all day with each team having a run of ends to either open up a lead or close the gap before Bannister finished one shot ahead, 17-16, at the end of the game.
Sorell’s Ken Gatehouse flew out of the blocks against David Johns to lead 16-1, before a strong fight back from Johns saw his rink score a two on the last end to also win by a magical one shot, 25-24.
On the final rink, Sorell’s Tony McCulloch looked in control late in the game, leading by eight shots with four ends to play and holding five in the head. Franklin’s Brad Johns killed the end, triggering a late fight back, but eventually fell short, conceding to McCulloch by two shots, 18-16, for Sorell’s sole rink win, but Johns doing just enough for the visitors to claim victory.
New Norfolk suffered their second loss in two weeks, losing at home to Orford, the visitors improving their hold on top spot on the ladder, and pushing New Norfolk to third, Orford convincing three-rink winner by sixteen shots, 92-76.
Ian Brazendale produced the highest winning margin of the day, defeating New Norfolk’s Barry Bone by nine shots, 27-18. Chris Martyn supplied good support, adding a second rink win to Orford’s tally, finishing eight shots up on New Norfolk’s Greg Kingston, 23-15.
Rick Limbrick wrapped up the three-rink win for Orford, getting the better of New Norfolk’s Lauren Banks, in her first outing for the club this season, by four shots, 26-22. Kerry Hill ended any prospect of an all-rinks win for the visitors, beating Orford’s Clive Kelton by five shots, 21-16.
At Beltana, Kingborough came away with a nail biting, split-rinks win by a narrow two shots, 75-73, with just a few shots separating the teams on each rink. Beltana’s Keith Miller had an excellent start to his match with Kingborough’s Jeff Parsons, winning the first five ends to lead 8-0.
Parsons responded, slowly working into the contest, a pair of threes on the eleventh and twelfth ends reducing the margin to one shot in Miller’s favour. From there, both skips had successful ends, but Parsons still one behind with three ends to play.
Miller and his team of Leigh Noye, George Hindley and Greg Sandford pressed strongly over the remaining ends to which Parsons and his team of John Iles, Iain Dinning and Matt Featherstone failed to respond, allowing the Miller rink to win all ends left to play for a gain of four shots, finishing five shots up, 21-16.
Maddie Johnston’s rink of Kerrie Lane, Geoff Price and Crystal Brooks allowed Beltana’s Shane Young and his team of Cameron Brown, Wayne Cobbing and Michael Bond to build a lead of six shots by the sixth end before making any inroads into their deficit.
The Johnston rink put in a big effort over the closing ends, a five on the twentieth end brought them within a shot of Young, guaranteeing an exciting finish. The Beltana rink steadied, determined to hold their advantage to the end of the match, enabling them to win the final end, the two shots gained giving them victory by three shots, 20-17.
Kingborough’s Tony Verrier, with good support from his team of Vicki Bannister, Blake Sculthorpe and Lynn Barlow, led from the outset against Tony Vince’s rink of Andrew Baker, Michael Burdon and Robin Morgan, to lead by as many as seven shots by the eighteenth end. Vince’s rink was unable to make any real impression on the result of the contest, Verrier winning by six shots, 18-12.
Brendan Breen and his Beltana teammates, Terry Webster, Ray Smith and Geoff Doyle, would have been very pleased with their afternoon’s work at the conclusion of the fourteenth end, leading Gavin Cleary’s Kingborough rink of Michael Steele, Ian Harris playing his first game for the year, and Vince Grimes by four shots.
A four to Cleary on the next end changed the complexion of the game, with Cleary now taking charge. Adding three more shots to his tally in winning the sixteenth end had Cleary three shots in the clear. This spurred the Breen rink into action, winning three ends in succession to lead by two with two ends to play.
The momentum swung again in Cleary’s favour on the penultimate end, Breen devastated in dropping a four to Cleary who was now two in front. The last end would decide not only the result of the rink contest but the side that would win overall, the two sides level 73-all. In a brilliant finish, Cleary picked up two shots to not only claim victory over Breen by four shots, 24-20, but confirm a successful end to Kingborough’s visit to the Eastern shore.
In yet another contest where the visitors were triumphant, Royal Hobart’s road trip to Oatlands ended in a three-rink, sixteen-shot success, 94-78. The Division’s leading skip, Paul McCann, put the Royal’s in a match-winning position with his ten-shot conquest of William Van Kraanen, 25-15.
Barrie Cranwell, taking the skip’s position for the first time this season, celebrated his promotion by beating Oatlands’ Todd Oakley by five shots, 25-10, and Owen O’Driscoll continued his good form, picking up Royal’s third rink win six shots to the good of Oatlands’ Greg Cornish, 21-15.
Shane Porter’s five-shot defeat of Royal’s Bill Mottershead, 28-23, saved Oatlands from the ignominy of an all-rinks defeat on their home green.
Glenorchy Rodman was the only Division One side to win at home this week, defeating the visiting side, Glenorchy City, in a split-rinks decision, by eleven shots, 77-66. Michael Clifford was the big contributor to Rodman’s success overall, defeating his City opponent, John Van Tuyl by thirteen shots, 25-12.
Cheryl Nielsenbeck added to Rodman’s rink tally, shading City’s Noel Hyland by three shots, 21-18. City’s winning skips were unable to make any real inroads into Rodman’s winning edge, Rodman’s losing skips working hard to limit the shots conceded to their City opponents, Byan Rumley up by three shots against Rodman’s Jack Tabor, 18-15, and Leonie Hyland two shots to the better of Damien Sutton, 18-16.