Grove bowls into prelim
THE battle for the Premier League bowls title will be an all-Geelong affair after Ocean Grove’s clinical removal of Sebastopol from the finals on Saturday.
Ocean Grove will now play reigning premier Queenscliff in the preliminary final while Bareena goes straight through to the grand final on March 25.
The elimination final was closely fought from the beginning, but it was clear Ocean Grove had prepared well.
There were only four shots separating the two teams at the afternoon tea break, but Ocean Grove’s combination of skill, concentration and communication began to fall in its favour.
The match was always going to be tight as the two sides had scored a win apiece during the season, with Ocean Grove holding just a four-shot difference overall ahead of the elimination final showdown.
Matt Flapper’s rink showed the way as Ocean Grove went up a gear.
Kira Bourke was in great touch and led the rink extremely well with her natural talent belying her years. With back-up from Cal Hanna, Chris Price and skipper Flapper, the Simon Cornock (Sebastopol) rink was left to flounder losing the match 34-17.
The Mick West rink played patiently to build a big second half and take control over the Glenn Sargent (Sebastopol) rink.
For Ocean Grove it was its first hurdle to achieving a much sought-after premiership, now having to face-up to Queenscliff on the rebound next Saturday at Drysdale.
Bareena took a big step closer to premiership honours with a 12-shot win over Queenscliff with three rink wins and a solid 107 shots.
The Ben Wilding rink of John Shell (lead), Wayne MacLeod (second) and Brandon Anderson (third) were in excellent touch, taking the rink by eight shots with a strong display of all-round bowling skill.
With the support of the Brannon Shelton rink, winning by three shots, the overall performance by the Bareena Badgers was impressive against the reigning Premier.
The home and away series form was a good lead to this outcome with both teams winning a round but Bareena holding an overall one-shot lead going into the qualifying final. QUALIFYING FINAL: QUEENSCLIFF 2 v BAREENA 16 QCL BAR 21 R. McGovern, H. Dahler, N. Tait, L. Wayth S. Ford, J. Mahoney, T. Hicks, David Priddle D. Arthur, K. Thompson, D. Bruhn, B. Gladman T. Doyle, Rob Priddle, Dan Priddle, J. O'Donnell D. Roberts, T. Smith, L. Donahue, J. Monahan J. Plowman, J. Hawker, K. Weil, B. Shelton R. Butler, K. Coltish, B. Close, S. Sullivan J. Shell, W. Macleod, B. Anderson, B. Wilding TOTAL 25 24 24 34 107 ELIMINATION FINAL: OCEAN GROVE 16 v SEBASTOPOL 2 OG SEB 27 B. Irvine, A. Callow, K. Thomas, C.Hodges I. Andrew, J. Oliver, A. Holland, R. Baker G. Burkett, F. Richardson, R. Brehaut, T. Joel K. Urch, P. Lovell, S. Roberts, I. Warner K. Bourke, A. Bateup, C. Price, M. Flapper J. Garvin, S. Bottrell, T. Dickson-Arthur, S. Cornock T. Warren, O. Clark, M. Allen, M. West N. Sutherland, B. Forrest, D. Louttit, G. Sargent TOTAL 27 21 26 95 15 34 28 104 24 27 17 18 86