Strong performances in early stages of bowls season

COMPETITION in this Saturday’s bowls top division is likely to give every indication of the likely leaders.

Fourth-placed Webbcona, who are in recent good form, hosts the undefeated ladder leaders Sebastopol, while Victoria travel to Ballarat East.

If Victoria continue their form from last Saturday’s match, they will go in with a favourable expectation of a win to set up a challenge to Sebastopol’s top ladder position.

Webbcona’s rink, skippered by Gary Johnson, is performing strongly so far in the early stages of the season.

If it matches up with Sebastopol’s Scott Roberts’s rink this Saturday, the anticipation will be of bowls to the highest standards to be played.

Victoria had a strong win over BMS last Saturday, placing them second on the ladder with the help of Wes Lennecke and his crew scoring a 25-shot win on their rink.

Leader Chris Steenhuis said: “We all played well throughout the afternoon and every player equally contributed to our rink’s success.”

The BMS rink of Michael Storey was the only team success for the day, although a highlight for the afternoon was the last rink in play.

With one shot down, BMS skipper Stephen Byron made every effort with his last two bowls to dislodge the head in the hope that a two-shot turnaround could provide the visiting side a second winning rink for the day.

But it was not to be, and with the in-form Craig Ford skippering his rink with precision bowling, he managed with his last bowl to reach the head and slightly move the jack to a nest of his team’s bowls.

That resulted in their rink bringing home a further four shots to the overall tally for the afternoon.

City Oval are enjoying a good start to the season, being placed third on the ladder with their three wins, and will host Mount Xavier.

If they continue their early form they could be confident of progressing through this season’s competition, with the hope of playing finals at the business end of the season.

Division 1’s newly promoted Midlands team, meanwhile, has performed consistently so far and will travel to BMS this Saturday.

The two teams, which are placed fifth and sixth respectively, will seek out a win to place them in position to later challenge the ladder leaders for the opportunity to play finals.

The Midlands team has recruited well coming into the higher division, and skipper Ben McArthur and his rink have performed strongly so far, enabling the side to enjoy a good start.