Blue ribbon day for bowls comps

LOCAL action in the Ballarat Highlands Bowls Region reaches its crescendo this weekend with grand final trophies on the line in all divisions.

The top division grand final between BMS and Victoria will be played on Sunday afternoon at Sebastopol Bowling Club and a highlight leading into the match will be an exhibition game of the Junior Diggers squad.

Division 2 to 9 grand finals will be played at other Ballarat bowling venues.

City Oval will conclude their centennial year with both their Division 2 and 3 teams playing on the Webbcona bowling green where they will match off against the teams from Midlands and Sebastopol.

The Division 2 match is expected to be a thriller as when the teams met last Saturday each had two winning rinks up with Midlands securing a narrow five shot win to go directly through to the final.

City Oval then rolled up on Sunday and had a comfortable win over Clunes by 14 shots.

City Oval’s rink of Heath Fumberger could be the barometer for the side’s success and the ability of the duo of Ian Robinson and Wayne Roberts to master Webbcona’s green pivotal to the final result.

Midlands will look to its previous winning rinks of Paul Kennedy and Peter Considine to again get their side to premiership gold.

In Division 3, City Oval again come up against Sebastopol in their final, and the two sides have been clear leaders throughout the season.

In a nail biter last Saturday their match at Smeaton saw City Oval scraping home by the single shot with two rinks up, leaving Sebas to play on the Sunday where they secured a good win over Bungaree.

Expect the form of the Cassells brothers with the ability of skipper Scott Roberts to deliver decisive shots to be a deciding factor in another tight contest.

Ballan’s Division 4 side will met Victoria Bowling Club at City Oval in what is expected to be an interesting game.

Ballan have been clear leaders throughout the season recording only the one loss and with rinks skippered by Anne Draffen, Marcus Darley and David O’Hanlon having great success.

Victoria have won through from fourth position taking both semi and preliminary final matches and can be expected to make a great contest for the flag.

Division 5 could go either way as Sebastopol, who finished the home and away matches on top of the ladder, had a narrow three-shot win over City Oval in their semi-final to go through.

Meanwhile, Victoria came through from third in strong form, beating Ballarat North by 30 shots last Saturday then backed up by a 43 shot win and all rinks up in their game against City Oval on Sunday.

Bungaree and Waubra will meet up in Division 6 to see which town takes home this year’s flag.

Both teams had strong wins last weekend over the ladder leader BMS and it will depend on Waubra’s experienced rinks of Bobby Williamson and Paul Molloy and the performance of the Molloy brothers to determine the final outcome.

Finally, Sunday’s Division 1 match at Sebastopol will conclude a successful season for the Ballarat Highlands Bowls Region.

Victoria Bowling Club have been the dominant team losing only one match midway through the season by the single shot.

Expect the finale to be a riveting contest with BMS’ current form in the last part of the summer seeing the team move into the top four and secure second spot, giving every chance for a challenge to the Big V’s dominance.

– BY ANTHONY McCABE