Great Grove takes points
A GREAT team effort from Faye Richardson’s Ocean Grove rink handed top of the table Queenscliff its second defeat of the season yesterday.
Playing on the B green at Ocean Grove, that was running at a nice 14 seconds, the home team worked well to take the points.
Queenscliff won its first six games before lowering its colours to Highton in Round 7, then won its next four before Ocean Grove (1) entered the winner’s circle yesterday.
The Queenscliff rinks skippered by Barry Gladman and Kevin Thompson took winning points that gave the visitors an early advantage.
But the rink of Carol Howarth (lead), Margaret Carroll (second), Michael Allen (third) and Faye Richardson (skip) responded with an even performance to take the points by an overall winning margin of eight shots.
It was the first time this season that these four players had gathered together, with each playing their role to perfection.
After taking an eight-shot lead early in the game, the Richardson rink held off a cou- ple of comebacks from the Barrie Close (Queenscliff) rink to win in a tight game.
City of Geelong held second place on the ladder with an emphatic 58-shot win over the struggling Portarlington, taking all rink points.
Each CoG rink dominated its opposition with the Jacqueline McLaren rink leading by example with its dominant 35-5 win over the Geoff Lawson rink.
David Gunsser, playing third, was in particularly good touch and gave his fellow CoG bowlers confidence.
Leopold took an eight-shot win over Ocean Grove (2) in a tight and competitive match.
The only slip for Leopold was the performance from its No.1 rink where the Nicole Shortis (Leopold) rink recorded its first loss of the season, going down to the rink of Bryan Olsen (lead), Kim McConville (second), Lorraine Hunt (third) and Val Cook (skip) by five shots.
Torquay proved too strong for Highton to hold down third position, with the Alan Sampson rink again dominating with its 32-8 rink win over the Di Monk rink.
It was the Sampson rink’s seventh win of the season and one of its most emphatic.
At the bottom end of the ladder, it was an encouraging win to Geelong Cement over Lara by 12-4 and one vital shot.
The outcome centred on the winning performance from the Angela Patterson rink by nine shots. With Barb Lewis (lead), Anne Willis (second) and Leslie Willis (third) playing strong support to their skipper, it was a meritorious performance over the Alan Gillett rink from Lara that won the day.
In division two, in the match of the day, it was a top win to Bannockburn over ladder leader St Leonards. After losing round one, St Leonards has established itself as the team to beat, winning its next nine matches before lowering its colours to Bannockburn on a reasonable 16-second green.
These two sides met in round four of this season with St Leonards defeating Bannockburn 16-0 and 37 shots.
Following this 39-shot turnaround, the win has given Bannockburn a 16-point buffer in third position on the ladder.
The match was close all day, with the No.1 rink having a 24all draw, the No.2 rink going to Bannockburn by one shot and the No.3 rink going to Bannockburn also by one shot.
Round 14 will be played on Tuesday.