Bowls post-season gets underway

THIS weekend sees the start of finals in the local leagues of the Ballarat Highlands Bowls Region Saturday Pennant competition.

The current season see the introduction of both semi and the preliminary final play in the top tier Division 1 comp on consecutive days – Saturday 2 and Sunday 3 March.

The move means the Division 1 grand final will be played on Sunday 10 March in the hopes of enabling the winner access to the overall BHBR final played against the best top side in the Highlands Playing Areas inline tight Bowls Victoria timeframes.

The other divisions will follow through playing the normal three weekly finals schedule being played on Saturdays 2, 9 and 16 March.

In the final regular season round played last Saturday, a number of movements in the top part of the ladder has enabled some teams to move into the top two positions entitling them to a second chance in post-season contest.

Country teams have performed well and are well represented to play finals this coming month.

Ballan head up country representation, finishing off by leading Divisions 3 and 6 and look set to perform well during the final series.

Likewise, Smeaton has all Saturday teams competing in Division 2, 4 and 6 finals, but with their sides all finishing in third position, they’ll need a clean sweep in all post-season matches win through and take the flag.

The Smeaton club is also strongly represented in Tuesday Pennant finals with their Division 2, 3 and 4 sides all being part of the action.

Invermay’s Division 7 side have gone through to play finals finishing third while Linton’s division 8 side head up that ladder.

Daylesford and Learmonth are represented in the division 9 finals contest, with Beaufort’s home loss to Daylesford last Saturday seeing the team narrowly missing out with Sebastopol just qualifying in fourth position.

Ballarat East have enjoyed a very successful season with its Division 2 side in second spot while that club’s Division 7 and 9 sides head the ladder, so the Club can expect to celebrate a successful season later in March.

Tuesday Pennant success compliments East’s success by completing the home and away matches topping the Division 4 ladder as they head into finals.

Victoria Bowling Club’s strong performance in the second half of the season sees the club represented in the finals with its representation in six divisions – 1, 2, 4, 5, 7 and 8.

“We have two of our juniors playing finals for our Division 2 side and a further four competing in Division 8 finals,” said Victoria’s Robert Chapman.

“They are all going well in the Pennant competition and are participants in the Ballarat Gold Diggers junior squad program that is being organised by fellow club member Marc Oswin together with Creswick’s Gerry Flapper and their team of volunteers.

“This augur well for the future of bowls in Ballarat for the years ahead”.

BMS head up the Saturday Pennant competition in Division 1 with the team only having the single loss for the season a few weeks ago against Sebastopol, with the Burra finishing in second position followed by Webbcona and Victoria.

City Oval have completed the season in a creditable position in fifth having been promoted into the division for the 2023/24 the season.

The BMS club also saw the Division 3 and 6 sides finishing off to hold second position after a strong performance in the later stages of the season’s competition.