Bowls finals get underway

BUNGAREE’S Division 3 side will enter this Saturday’s Ballarat Highlands Bowls Region Weekend Pennant finals with confidence following a home win over the Sebastopol.

“We have had a few losses in the last part of the season following a good start earlier in the year,” said Bungaree’s Chris Thornton.

“So the win last Saturday will hopefully stand us in good stead for success in playing finals in the coming fortnight.”

It was a tight race in the BHBR Division 3 competition with four teams fighting for two places in the finals.

Bungaree, BMS and Daylesford were vying for the remaining spots and with all three clubs recording wins on Saturday it was points that narrowly separated the teams.

In the washout Daylesford was the unlucky loser, falling just outside the final for and missing out on playing finals this Saturday.

The first round of BHBR Saturday Pennant finals this weekend a double header of matches on both Saturday and Sunday.

Bungaree will travel to Smeaton on Saturday for the semi-final and play BMS with the winner to return to Smeaton and play the loser from the City Oval and Sebastopol game in Sunday’s preliminary final, both matches commencing at 1pm.

The competition’s Division 1 contest also came down to the line with a comprehensive win by BMS in their Friday night match at Ballarat Bowling Club.

The visitors took all 18 points and retained second spot on the ladder while also earning the double chance.

It was heart break for the Ballarat side as they slipped from third spot to fifth on the ladder following Webbcona’s elevation into fourth position.

Webbcona’s post-season action came on the back of their strong win against Mt Xavier where two rinks skippered by Gary Johnson and Ben McArthur lead the way to success.

This weekend’s Division 1 finals will be played at Central Wendouree with Saturday’s semi-finals seeing the strong performing Victoria side coming up against BMS.

Meanwhile Sebastopol will take on Webbcona with the winner to play the loser of the Victoria/BMS match the following day.

The venues this BHBR weekend’s finals are: Division 1 Central Wendouree, Division 2 Sebastopol, Division 3 Smeaton, Division 4 Webbcona, Division 5 Ballarat, Division 6 Buninyong, Division 7 City Oval, Division 8 Ballarat East and Division 9 City Oval.

In BHBR Tuesday’s Pennant action the Division 1 semi-finals saw the favourites Victoria and City Oval bowling clubs struggle against BMS and Midlands respectively.

The results mean Victoria will use their double chance and go on to play in next week’s preliminary final against Midlands.

Smeaton’s Division 2 side continue their top form and move into the grand final while Leamonth will go on to play Daylesford in the preliminary final.

Victoria’s Tuesdays Division 3 side lost to Linton where Craig Grenfell’s rink performed strongly for the win to elevate the team straight into the grand final.

Division 4 sees Ballarat North go through to the grand final on 14 March where they will play the winner of next Tuesday’s match between Smeaton and Learmonth.

In Division 5 Beaufort moves straight through to the grand final where they will await the winner from the Ballan and Linton match.

– BY ANTHONY McCABE