Bowls 29/11

BALLARAT Memorial Sport’s Division 5 side is competing well in their first year of the competition after winning last season’s Division 6 premiership and being promoted.

The coming Saturday’s match where the side travels to Bungaree will provide an opportunity to set the team up for the second half of the competition and retain a position to play finals at the season’s conclusion.

Last Saturday’s strong home win against Buninyong earned the BMS side 16 points for the afternoon’s outing which saw the side slip into the four sharing 80 points each with Bungaree but with BMS having a higher percentage.

City Oval comfortably headed the division ladder with Sebastopol and Mount Xavier leaving both BMS and Bungaree a clear game behind.

“We are pleased with our Division 5 side’s progress given they are playing their first season in the higher division following the team’s success in winning last season’s Division 6 premiership” said BMS President Craig Hurdsfield.

“Our top division is going all right and had a good win on Saturday helped by Ryan Bedggood’s rink that finished their game with a strong performance after the tea break.

“The Webbcona greens were nice and it looked as if the strong winds were going to threaten rain later in the game but fortunately we got through.

“This coming Saturday we will be hosting Linton and we will need to win to get into the four. We can expect this will be a great contest as both teams have performed well this season.

“The following weekend we intend to schedule our match with Creswick to be played under lights at BMS on Friday evening subject to suitable prevailing weather conditions and this should be a good match to look forward to and we hope to draw a good crowd in what should be a great night of bowls.”

The Division 1 ladder sees Victoria and Sebastopol leading ahead with seven wins each whilst the competition is close for the final two positions on the ladder with only the single point separating Linton on 86 points, City Oval and BMS both on 85 points but separated on percentage.

BMS’ Graeme “GI” Inglis played his 350th game on Saturday at Midlands being the Club’s record holder with this achievement which he celebrated skippering his rink to a win, but unfortunately the home side managed to win the game overall made possible by good wins the Midlands rinks of Edward Harwood and Kevin McGrath recorded for the afternoon’s play.

Playing at BMS on Saturday the strong Ballarat North Division 7 side recorded their fifth win for the season with Garry Fitzimons rink performing strongly on the afternoon that sees the team with five wins to date placed in third place just one game away from Victoria and Mount Xavier that head the ladder.

In a tight contest in the Division 9 match BMS played with Victoria saw the visitors take a single shot win with Ray Bear’s rink’s three-shot win playing a decisive role in the final outcome.