Victoria, Ballarat East ready for Pennant finale

VICTORIA and Ballarat East bowling clubs look forward to completing their Pennant season’s competition this Saturday with multiple representations to take the flag for their sides.

In the division 1 final played on Sunday, which started at the earlier time of 11am due to the prevailing heat Victoria, came home strong over Sebastopol in the final stages to take out the 2023-24 Premiership.

“We started off well and at the 70th end we (Sebastopol) were still leading however as the game was coming to a conclusion Victoria took the ascendancy scoring some good numbers in the final ends which blew out the final score leaving them with 17 shots up, 82 to 65,” Sebastopol’s Rob Baker said.

Sebastopol’s hope for a season flag now rests with their division 4 side who had a good win over the weekend over Victoria and go onto play Midlands this Saturday.

Baker watched the Saturday division 9 preliminary final contest He said: “All the players from both Daylesford and Sebas battled the heat and the tricky prevailing wind conditions and I am sure the earlier start (11am) would have been appreciated. The pace of the Ballarat East green possibly suited the Daylesford bowlers better”.

The Daylesford 16 shot victory sees Daylesford go through to meet Ballarat East in the Grand Final this coming weekend.

While Victoria’s division 4 side lost their preliminary final to Sebastopol, Victoria’s Robert Chapman said: “The Club’s division 7 side won through on Saturday in a good win over Invermay and will now come up against the strong Ballarat East team in this weekend’s final”.

“We are all excited for our division 8 side that came through in a tight match against Linton and now go on to play in this weekend’s final against City Oval. The side has four junior players playing their first season’s bowls, which is creating lots of interest amongst the membership.”

The Ballarat East Club has had a terrific 2023-24 season which sees all its Saturday pennant sides in divisions 2, 7 and 9 having gone straight through from their semi-finals matches to qualify for playing the grand final.

Smeaton’s division 2 side has finished off the season strongly and last weekend fought off Midlands to go through to meet Ballarat East this Saturday and be the only representative side for the Club competing for a flag.

Ballan’s two sides have played well all season and both headed their respective ladders in the divisions 3 and 6 and will each come up against the two BMS sides who finished off the season strongly having come from outside the four to finish second after the last round of home and
away games.

The Ballan division 6 side lost their semi final to BMS a fortnight ago and on the weekend in a nail biter managed the single shot win last Saturday over Waubra to go through to the grand final.

Waubra’s Bobby Williamson said: “We were leading strongly in the first half of Saturday’s game and our rink were 9 shots up after the first 4 ends and the team were 15 shots up by the halftime break but afterwards the wind picked up and the pace of the green quickened which Ballan managed the best; particularly playing longer ends”.

“On the last end our rink had two shots but was unable to gain the extra shot in the head with the last bowl played to force an extra end to play a tiebreaker.

“The game was well supported by members from both clubs, particularly those having travelled from Ballan.”

It can be expected that tomorrow’s (Saturday, March 16) matches between Ballan and BMS will be tightly contested and well supported by their respective club membership.

The Ballarat Highlands region’s Men’s and Women’s Champion of Champions final was played on Monday. Although the game started at the earlier time of 11am players acquitted themselves well playing through the heat and tricky prevailing windy conditions on the Sebastopol bowling green with the final results being:

Men’s Ben McArthur (Webbcona) 25 shots to Brenton Coad (Victoria) 15 shots

Women’s Michelle Tait (BMS) 25 shots to Sarah Braybrook (Webbcona) 12 shots.