Grass looking greener in Ballarat North

BALLARAT North Bowling Club go into the new year with great spirit knowing their club’s pennant teams are enjoying success.

“All our pennant teams currently positioned within the top four in all divisions, both in Saturday and Tuesday pennant competitions which we are all very pleased about,” said club president Scott Platter.

“We had a few players out on Saturday due to COVID illness resulting in some movement of players between the sides, but this situation has applied to other clubs as well.

“On Saturday our top side included the father and daughter combination of Sam and Amy Newman with number one supporter grandmother Heather looking on throughout the day.

“On the Sunday, Amy Newman travelled to Kyneton to help the Ballan team as a substitute player, along with Janice Conroy and state squad player Anne Draffen in the Women’s Triples Championship final with their team winning through to take the title.”

Ballarat North’s divisions 2 and 5 side both played away on Saturday against Midlands in a close match which saw both sides narrowly losing out by the single shot in both contests.

With a couple of ends to play Ballarat North clawed back from being four shots down overall to be in an attacking position.

That means the last bowl to be played by Ballarat North skipper Glenn Mattei was a tricky one.

They needed two shots and could have got them by moving the jack back to their back bowl, and while he managed to reach the white ball, it moved to the side resulting in a single shot loss overall to the Midlands team.

The loss denied Ballarat North top spot on the ladder with City Oval heading up the division with seven wins and two losses, and the Midlands win saw that side positioned just in the four with Clunes third a single point ahead.

A very similar scenario was played out on Midlands top green where again Ballarat North missed again by the single shot.

The home side’s win placed them in fifth position on 107 points in hot pursuit of the Ballarat North team in fourth with 109 points at five wins and four losses.

Ballarat North skipper Mick Brown valiantly tried to move the jack on his last bowl but was unable to do so and drew his rink against Midlands Sharon Croft, which resulted in the Midlands win, aided by the strong 14 shot victory in Jim Graham’s foursome.

In Division 7 Ballarat North heads the ladder with six wins, one loss and 128 points comfortably ahead of City Oval on 116 points and Sebastopol and Buninyong making up the four.

Ballarat North’s Tuesday Pennant side playing in the Division 4 competition lead the ladder with six wins and two losses on 115 points, narrowly ahead of Ballarat East on similar points and only separated by percentage with Learmonth and Smeaton clubs filling out the four.

– BY ANTHONY McCABE