Pennant finals race heating up
With only two remaining rounds, the finals race gets tighter in West Gippsland Bowls Division Saturday pennant.
Garfield’s top team in division two visited Newborough looking to consolidate their fourth place on the ladder, but unfortunately it wasn’t to be.
The overall result for the day was a disappointing 79 shots to 99 loss.
The team of Gary Helmore, Gary Payne, Steve Bassed and skip Stephen Whyte were down by 13 shots at tea, but fought back hard to come out with a commendable 28 shots all draw.
Rod James, Ron Saunders, Shane Oliver and skip Nick Henwood were having a good tussle with their opponents, but after tea the opposition slipped away to inflict an 18 shots to 23 loss.
Gordon Moxey, Joe Lenders, Alan White and skip Tom Cleary played out a close battle all day, apart from a couple of small scoring droughts, which left them eight shots down in the end, losing by 16 shots to 24.
Peter Lieshout’s team of Stuart Gemmill, Ray Biffin and Bob Lamport skipped out early to a seven shots to one lead again this week.
Unfortunately they couldn’t maintain it, finally losing by 17 shots to 24.
The loss has dropped the side to fifth, with more work to do to get back in the top four.
Division four hosted Thorpdale, who were second on the ladder.
With only one winning team, the Garfield side went down overall by 10 shots, 78 shots to 88.
The team of Adrian Helmuth, Brian Fox, Damian Brick and skip Wes Goodman fought out a close battle all day to be 17 shots all with two ends to go, but with four shots on those last ends going the way of Thorpdale, the game was lost 17 shots to 21.
With regular skip Kevin Donald in hospital, Judy Pocklington was drawn up from division six to fill the hole – and fill it she did.
Her team of Don Knight, Alan Wilson and Barry Johnson started slowly, but stormed home to win well by 29 shots to 13.
The team of Frank Prins, Graeme Burton, Malcolm Newham and skip Charlie Borg struggled early but fought back to make it close, losing by 19 shots to 23 in the end.
Helene Newton’s team of Cliff Stephens, Ken Newton and Barrie Smith were fighting a losing battle all day, eventually losing by 13 shots to 31.
Despite the loss, the side is still fifth on the ladder only half a game out of the four. The club hope Kevin gets better soon. Division six were finally able to field a side for the first time in three games; and they made the most of it.
Playing ladder leaders Drouin and short one of their regular skips, the side put up a huge performance to win by 48 shots to 45.
The team of Jim Boucher, Bev Sainsbery, Keith Sainsbery and skip Jan Johnson bolted out of the blocks to have a nine shot lead, which they turned into a 25 shots to 18 win.
The other team of Joe Deane, sub Maureen McMillan, John Majkut and skip Isabel Deane started slowly then fought back well to be all square with the last end to play, but went down by 23 shots to 27.
It was a great morale-boosting win for the side.
The club thanked Drouin player Maureen McMillan for filling the gap for Garfield.