Win a boost for finals
QUEENSCLIFF topped the ladder in Geelong-Ballarat Premier bowls with a 15-shot win over fellow finalist Ocean Grove in the final round of home and away matches on Saturday.
The result gave Queenscliff bragging rights over Bareena, but the pair will face off in next Saturday’s qualifying final at Eastern Park for a spot in the grand final.
Queenscliff showed its talent and confidence with the solid win over the Grove with its leading competition rink of Ray Butler (lead), Kevin Coltish (second), Barrie Close (third) and Steve Sullivan (skip) paving the way with a 23-12 win over the Tony Joel rink.
The Barry Gladman rink took the big scalp of Matt Flapper by just two shots while the Luke Wayth rink rounded off the Queenscliff winning trio with its seventh rink win of the season over the Craig Hodges rink.
Bareena made its strong challenge for the top position with a 16-shot win over Eastern Park.
The John O’Donnell skippered rink was again the outstanding winning rink for Bareena with a 27-19 win over the Adam Martin rink.
O’Donnell finished on top of the leading skips competition ladder with 30 points and a shot difference of 101.
City of Geelong finished the season on a winning note, recording its second win of the season by taking the points against Lara by a single shot.
It was a close tussle between the two sides throughout the afternoon on a smooth-running green at Drumcondra.
The Zane Lugg rink won by a single shot over the Travis Kelly rink, while the Gerry Dean rink scored a four-shot win over the Leigh Butcher rink.
The Lara rink skippered by Ian Polwarth Jr then rallied and nearly took the game off CoG with its seven-shot win over Aaron Hyatt – before the Craig Elliott rink showed some good end-of-season form to take its rink by three shots and the overall match by the vital one shot.
It was the Elliott rink’s fifth win of the season and came at a good time for the club following a disappointing season overall.
The two Ballarat-based games were won by Sebastopol over Victoria, cementing its fourth place on the ladder and a top 56-shot win to Webbcona over the relegated BMS.