Top two dominant in top four clashes
A Premier Division report for The Mercury by Peter Kirby
The top two sides, Sandy Bay and Kingborough, underscored their dominance of the competition in the final round before the Christmas break in Bowls South’s Leumas Accounting Premier Division Saturday Pennant, each having three-rink victories over top four rivals, Rosny Park (fourth) and Brighton (third) respectively.
At Rosny Park, Sandy Bay won by nineteen shots, 92-73. Sandy Bay’s Justin Plummer continued his stellar form, defeating Nick Courto by twelve shots, 24-12. In fine but blustery conditions, Plummer and Bryce ‘Bondi’ Guy put on a complete back-end performance. Courto drew on all his skill and ability but wasn’t able to contain the dynamic duo who led for the entire game.
After starting with a six on the first end, Alby Norris skipped away against Peter Bannister. With Rowie (Tony Rowe) leading and Rowie (Rohan Cooper) playing two, with Ryan McCoull in the three spot, Alby bolted to a thirteen-shot lead with five ends to play. Bannister and his rink of Peter Francis, Paul Maxwell and Ross Bannister rallied, scoring eleven shots on the final five ends to fall two shots, 23-25. Norris claimed the confusion of names in his front end may have contributed to the capitulation in the dying stages.
The third matchup saw the SPL leading skip, state and Tassie Tridents squad member Josh Lording take on veteran and current state triples skip Darren Monks. In a rare turn of events, Monks arrived at the club early which surprised many. In a game that ebbed and flowed it was Lording who reigned supreme. With his rink of the Howells boys and Reg Daly bowling well in the two position, Lordo was able to run away with an eleven-shot win, 27-16.
Andrew Blake was the only rink winner for the Roos, defeating Josh Mabb by six shots, 22-16. With Dale Maundrill, John McKibbon and Greg Allenby playing solidly, the match was close early. Blake played some good conversion shots to scored three shots on each of four ends during the middle stages to hold a ten-shot lead with two ends to play. Mabb tried hard scoring, winning both of the final two ends for a four-shot to eventually go down by six shots, 16-22.
Kingborough inflicted Brighton’s first loss at home this season. The Tigers jumped the Bulls from the start, having a fifteen-shot lead after ten ends and were never headed. From there Kingborough controlled the game, whenever the Bulls closed the gap the Tigers would steady and extend their lead again, finally running out three-rink victors by nineteen shots, 89-70.
Jason Fowler’s team of Jason Commane, Darryn Reeves and Michael Andersch all played well to defeat Grant Wakefield’s team by thirteen shots, 28-15. Ryan Guy-Rees also won by thirteen shots over Riley Davie, with Guy-Rees’ lead, Jack Butler, in great form continually getting his team off to a good start.
Nathan Dinning defeated Matt Breward by eight shots, 23-15. Dinning’s number two, Mark Burgess, was the standout player on the rink. Mick Daniels salvaged a rink win for Brighton with a fifteen-shot victory over Will Coad. Daniels’ team are combining well and continually get the job done for Brighton.
Claremont claimed a split-rinks two-shot victory, 78-76, in a tight contest at Dover. Dean Shaw’s ten-shot win, 24-14, over Dover’s Jarrah Allan the biggest winning margin of the day, establishing a healthy lead for the visitors.
Claremont’s Paul Hart lowered Brad Carver’s colours, home by three shots, 21-18. Unfortunately for Dover, their successful skips, Roger Dale defeating Michael Taylor by six, 23-17, and Cam Norris five shots to the good of John McDonald, 21-16, just not doing enough to get their side into a winning position.
Buckingham go into the Christmas break without a win for the season after falling victim to Glenorchy Rodman, 80-66, Rodman successful on three rinks at Buckingham. Rodman’s Anthony Clifford led the way for the visitors with an eight-shot, 22-14, victory over Jeanette Lane.
Rodman’s Cameron Tegg overcame a ten-shot deficit to George Kovacs to claim victory by four shots, 21-17, with Danial Gahan defeating Bucks’ Craig Owen by the same score. Alvin Cooke again secured a rink win for Buckingham with victory in a tight, see-sawing encounter with Rod Turner, 18-16.
Cremorne made it two wins a row with a tight all rinks, seventeen-shot, over visitors, Howrah. Ash Banks had the better of Howrah’s Danny Neal, leading most of the day to record a solid, 25-17 win. Banks and son, Mitch, playing in the three spot, played some brilliant bowls throughout the game resulting in a comfortable victory.
Cremorne’s Phil Ions had a tremendous tussle with inform skip, Adam Butler, early, with Butler playing some brilliant conversion shots. Ions, however, got the upper hand in the second half which included a huge draw to the ditch when five down on the second last end. Ions and his team winning, 20-16.
Pat Hoffman and Peter Marshall rounded out the clean sweep for Cremorne, both winning their matches by 3 shots, Hoffman 20-17 over Bill Butler and Marshall 16-13 over Glenn Frame. Both these matches were incredibly tight from start to finish with scores level many times.