Highton turns the table on Coutas
HIGHTON skip Daniel Priddle concedes securing early season wins is important for his team but has moved to temper the excitement after defeating Queenscliff in Premier bowls on Saturday.
The Hawks were down by 20 shots before the break but managed to narrow the gap and turn the tables on the visitors, ultimately running out victors by five shots.
Queenscliff was without star player Steve Sullivan on Saturday and Priddle said, while his team was happy with where it was at after three rounds, there was still plenty of work ahead.
“It is good to get a win early in the season but we are certainly not reading into it too much,” Priddle said.
“We understand with Steve Sullivan being away on state representative duties that Queenscliff was a little bit undermanned, so we are happy to get a win early in the season at home but we are aware that we have a fair bit of improving to do and we will work towards building as the season goes on.
“The whole day on Saturday was really close from half way on. We had a little bit of a slow start but some hard work from a couple of the rinks trimmed the deficit and it was neck and neck all the way down to the wire so it was a good tussle
“It is good to get a close win because we have a fair few new faces and a lot of players that haven’t played with each other, so we are still trying to get to know each other as a side and doing that will help us jell.”
Highton will next travel to Lara, which fell to Bareena by 18 shots at the weekend but, despite that result, Priddle said the Hawks could not afford to be taking any opponent lightly. “Lara will be a handful,” he said.
“There are no easy games in the fixture and they are always a hard competitive side and do well at home.
“It will be a challenge for us but one we are looking forward to.”
In other Premier results, Ocean Grove (1) lived up to its name with a 117-73 win over Ocean Grove (2), Eastern Park (97) defeated Drysdale (82) and City of Geelong flexed its muscle with a resounding 110-66 victory against Torquay.