Relegated City gets its new campaign off to flying start
FORMER Premier club City of Geelong has opened its push for a quick return to the top division in gritty style.
A modern incarnation of the old Geelong West, merged with Drumcondra, it is playing at its new premises at the Geelong Golf Club estate on Ballarat Rd with all synthetic greens.
On Saturday, it hosted Torquay, a finalist last season.
City is again led by the quality bowls of Craig Elliott.
Pre-game, Elliott was hopeful but not overconfident of a good outcome.
He said he was a little disappointed with the commitment of players through the practice round.
Their stock of experienced bowlers has been depleted with their poor result last season and the club is in a rebuilding phase.
Even though the names on the scorecards are different, City has a good core and the newcomers performed well in the win.
Last season’s runner-up, Ocean Grove, has a quality line-up in its second side, boosted by a recruitment drive netting 20-plus new players.
It played Bell Post Hill, a new club to Division 1.
The BPH guys had a break across the first five ends to put pressure on last season’s grand finalists.
By the break, BPH was up by eight shots and young skip Jayke Short said his team took great confidence from the lead at that time.
In the second half of the game, it was still BPH holding a nice break.
On one of the last ends, Paul Standaert’s rink gave up a six, but the other rinks held together to get their first win in Division 1.
It promises to be a strong season of bowls with a lot of good sides.