Bowls back on the greens soon

ACTION in the Ballarat Highlands Bowls Region will recommence in the New Year with Saturday Pennant bowls 20 January, after a 5 week break as Clubs plan for the last third of the regular home and away season.

A number of clubs will be holding regular tournaments in the intervening period and this month Ballarat will host the Bowls Victoria 2024 Region Sides Championships across the weekend of 13 to 14 January at four bowling clubs, including Sebastopol, Webbcona, Victoria and Central Wendouree.

Creswick bowlers have extra reason to celebrate the New Year as they return to their Creswick home base and play home games on their new green from round 13.

Appreciation is extended to the Webbcona Bowling Club for having made their greens available to Creswick to play their home games on their greens for the past couple of seasons.

Ballarat Memorial Sport, or BMS lead the Division 1 competition with an impressive record to date of 10 wins, a drawn game and a game abandoned due to rain accumulating 174 points, well clear of Sebastopol on 144 and Webbcona on 141 points respectively.

Linton are currently placed fourth Victoria and City Oval are hoping for a strong performance from their leading sides in the final stages of the competition to challenge for the fourth position.

Although placed some way behind City Oval’s Ian Robinson said, “Our team’s run home is very good and we still consider we have a chance to make it into finals contention.”

“We are expecting our sides in divisions 5, 6 and 8 will be in the mix of playing finals also. Our Division 2 side that was promoted from Division 3 last season after its finals win is struggling with only 2 wins to date but did have a win earlier in the season against third place Smeaton,” he said.

Ballarat East have emerged as a successful club in the past four years or so with a number of new bowlers together with a fresh approach to management.

This sees the club leading in Division 2 and if successful in finals it is likely to return to the top flight.

“We are not getting ahead of ourselves and thinking about finals yet but rather taking the competition on a week-by-week approach” said club president Mick Kay.

The club is strongly placed in the Division 7 competition with 11 wins and is also placed third in Division 9.

Midlands Division 2 side has performed strongly in recent weeks and is positioned the single point below Ballarat East and well ahead of Smeaton and Victoria who currently look comfortable in the four but could be challenged if either Ballarat North, Clunes or Webbcona if they can finish off strongly in the later part of the season.

Although Ballan with eight wins currently hold top spot followed closely by Bungaree look set to play out for that entitlement.

Invermay are third in the Division on 135 points and the competition is tight with single points separating Central Wendouree fourth on 127 points followed by BMS 126 and Sebastopol 126. BMS previously occupying a position in the four which it lost following two consecutive washouts will be looking for good performances on the green together with fine weather to regain a finals berth at season end.

Victoria and Midlands strongly lead the Division 4 competition with nine wins each ahead of Smeaton and Sebastopol on seven with Linton and Learmonth are a further two games out.

Ballarat North will have a good opportunity for success in the Division 5 where they lead the competition with 11 wins well ahead of Mt Xavier with eight followed by City Oval and Bungaree on seven wins a piece.

– ANTHONY McCABE