Hawks have hope
HIGHTON closed the gap on Bareena with a tense win on Saturday but will need results to fall its way to make Premier bowls finals.
Despite only one round remaining, the Hawks remain a chance of making the top four, sitting 16 points outside finals calculations.
Highton closed the gap on fourth-placed Bareena, winning two of its four rinks for an overall 92-90 win at Bareena Bowling Club to claim 14 points ahead of its Round 18 clash against last-placed Torquay this weekend.
“The two rinks that went down went down by a few shots each,” Highton skip Neil Jones said.
“To get another couple more points would have been terrific but, in reality, I think 14 points is a pretty good result against Bareena at Bareena.
“We would have loved to get 18 points but it just didn’t happen that way.”
Highton would need Drysdale to upset Bareena in the final round to be any chance of making finals.
“Funnier things have happened,” Jones said.
‘We’ll just have to play our own game and get as many points as we can and it will again be a matter of sitting back and seeing how the other teams’ results come in.”
Elsewhere, Ocean Grove (2) and Eastern Park (1) played out an 87-87 draw, Queenscliff took maximum points against Torquay with a 106-84 win, Ocean Grove (1) also banked 18 points with a 123-78 victory over Lara and City of Geelong and Drysdale also couldn’t be separated on 80-80.
Ocean Grove (1) has a lock on top spot but Eastern Park (193 points) and Queenscliff (187) are fighting for the double chance.