Invermay succeeds against City Oval

A STRONG performance in the final stages saw Invermay take out a 16-shot victory over City Oval to consolidate the team’s position heading up the Division 3 bowls ladder.

“City Oval was always going to be a challenge with their depth of experienced bowlers and we were one shot down at afternoon tea,” Invermay’s Steve Riley said.

“Returning to the green after the break we managed to gain the ascendency overall then going on to take out the win.

“For the most part of the season we have come to rely on David Carlyle’s rink who have been the standout rink for us helping to secure our wins on a Saturday.

“However, this Saturday City Oval’s Ron Coxall and his rink took an early 19-to-two-shot lead over Carlyle, and the manner in which the (Invermay) rink fought back from there helped put us back in the game.

“It was certainly a warm afternoon and for a change we didn’t have a breeze present, so conditions became hot for us as the afternoon progressed.

“This coming Saturday we travel to Sebastopol and they are always a challenge to win [against] on their home greens”.

The Sebastopol side has taken the prized scalps of BMS, Beaufort and Midlands in the past three rounds and is currently placed seventh, 38 shots out of the four.

The loss by City Oval sees the side slip from second to third on the Division 3 ladder after Beaufort had a strong home win in the match against Bungaree, moving up to second.

Midlands Division 3’s strong 34- shot win over Daylesford on Saturday following a narrow win against Bungaree the previous week sees the side securing fourth position on the ladder ahead of BMS by 31 shots .

But it faces the difficulty of securing sufficient wins in the last five rounds to challenge for a finals berth.

Central Wendouree’s Division 4 team played host to Creswick.

“It was a good, friendly game all day with Creswick getting off to a flying start before we were able to come back to narrow the gap” Central Wendouree’s Jan Vincent said.

“Bill Shillito’s rink had a good win and John Meek’s rink fought back to draw in their match against the rink of Barry Yates.”

Creswick won by 10 shots and earnt 15 points. The Division 4 ladder is a tightly-fought contest with ladder leader Sebastopol on 156 points, only six points ahead of fourth-placed BMS on 150 points. Victoria (152 points) and Learmonth (151 points) make up the four ahead of fifth-placed Linton on 134 points.

Central Wendouree is gearing up to run this season’s Country Week event for the country clubs in the Ballarat district, which will be held in the week starting Monday 3 February.

All entries for the event may be lodged through Robert Dunstan by phoning 0407 865 602.