Torquay strong in the clinches

TORQUAY is a step from premiership glory after it advanced to the grand final with an eight-shot win over Highton Blue in Saturday’s second semi-final.

Despite Highton Blue’s best efforts to cause an upset, it is looking more and more like being Torquay’s season after the 97-89 win.

The challenger deserves full credit for playing with such courage and not allowing its fancied rival to intimidate it at any stage.

Although it doesn’t make up for the defeat, it was an honourable and gallant loss.

But when in a rink-by-rink breakdown of the match, it is easy to see where Highton Blue lost the match, and how little room for error there is in bowls.

Highton Blue managed to win one rink by two shots, which was its only triumph for the match.

However it did force another rink to draw with Torquay, which provided an opportunity for it to cause a potential upset as the favourite had only also had one rink win by two shots.

Except the difference was in the fourth rink.

Torquay managed to win the fourth rink by nine shots, which was enough to make up for the other rinks and ultimately win it the game.

Saturday’s hit-out will hold Highton Blue in good stead for its preliminary final showdown with Drysdale.

Torquay will allow those two sides to battle it out, as it enjoys the well-deserved week off.

Drysdale has earnt the opportunity to play off for a grand final berth after it made it past Portarlington with a four-shot win in the first semi-final.

It was a close battle between the two sides, though the end result was as expected by many, with Drysdale being too good on the day. It was again evident how important a few shots can be, as the rink count was two each, but it was Drysdale which won. OCEAN Grove has won through to its second grand final in three seasons after overpowering Victoria by 23 shots in Saturday’s second semi-final.

Ocean Grove captain Matthew Flapper said he believed his side saved its best for Saturday.

“It was an excellent win,” Flapper said.

“We might have had a great season, though come finals it’s a new ball game. We had no homeground advan- tage. So it was a real credit to our boys.

“We always knew it would be a hard game and it was probably one of, if not our best performances of the season.”

It wasn’t a dream start for Ocean Grove who trailed Victoria after the first 20 ends.

Ocean Grove had not been in this position too often this season, and with a grand final spot on the line, it knew Victoria would not give up.

As all good sides do, though, it regained control over the next 25 ends to lead by 10 shots at the break.

The 2012-13 premier then pulled away in the second half to finish off an imposing performance with a 98-75 win.

Flapper said despite trailing early, he felt confident his side would get the job done.

“They did jump us, but without sounding arrogant, if we play to our potential we are very hard to beat,” he said.

“My message to the boys was that we had done the job until now, but let’s not waste 18 weeks of hard work and let’s find another gear and we flicked the switch.”

Despite losing to Ocean Grove, Victoria lives to fight another day and will take on Geelong West in Ballarat next weekend.

Drysdale v Portarlington L Kirk, V Chapman, J McMahon, J Mahoney J Chapman, J Poffey, M Confoy, T Demaria J Bird, A Hayes, S Coates, R Jeffs A Watkins, M Dennis, I Anderson, M Hennessy M Hommelhoff, A Kernen, J Fry, J Monahan L McNamara, C Ranger, G Hennessy, R Roberts B Jeffs, L Fiffen, K Steen, B Bennett D Handley, W, Skowronski, B Hirt, C Sproal Totals

Though not overly thrilled by the road trip, Geelong West will go into the match quietly confident, according to captain Craig Elliott.

Geelong West booked its clash with Victoria for a spot in the grand final after an eight-shot win against Queenscliff in the first semi-final on Saturday.

Elliott said he believed his side was always in the driver’s seat against Queenscliff.

“It was a very successful win for us, a good win,” he said. “We won by eight shots and that’s as close as they got to us, so the result was never really in any danger. D 15 - 20

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“We say that confidently, not arrogantly.

“We have probably had the wood over Queenscliff and we beat them on the same green in the final last year, so that probably gave us a slight advantage as well.

“We were always confident we would win.”

Geelong West has already switched its focus to Victoria and trying to book a spot in the big dance against Ocean Grove.

“It was a good win and now we look forward to backing it up against Victoria. We are keen to get the job done,” Elliott said.