BHBR Women’s representative side captures 23-24 Page Shield against Geelong

The Ballarat Highlands Bowls Region (BHBR) hosted the annual Whykes Shield and Page/Webster Shield event against the Geelong Bowls Region (GBR) on Sunday, 29th October 2023 at Victoria Bowling Club in Ballarat.

Men’s and Women’s representative sides from the BHBR played off against the GBR representative side for the Whykes Shield (Men) and the Page Shield & Webster Shield (Women).

The Men’s Whykes Shield competition consisted of 6 rinks (4 players per rink) playing two games of 15 ends, one in the morning, followed by a second game in the afternoon.

Geelong took the honours in the morning game, winning by 7 shots overall.

In the afternoon match the Geelong side handled the conditions better early, scoring shots to hold control as the match progressed.

The Ballarat Highlands regained shots to narrow the gap, but were unable to overcome the earlier lead of their opponents, losing by the narrow margin of 4 shots, resulting in an overall loss of 11 shots over the two games, giving Geelong the victory in this season’s competition for the Whykes Shield.

BHBR’s men’s manager Wayne Morgan saw plenty of positives in the team’s performance.

“We were in contention for much of the day against strong opposition and the team played well together.”

“Our best rink was that of Greg Pliers (Midlands), Tim Beacham (Sebastopol), Tony Wood & Haig Varcoe (both from Victoria) who ended up a creditable 20 shots up overall winning their morning match by 4 shots and followed up with a win of 16 shots in the afternoon.”

Page Shield win for BHBR Women

The Women’s morning match was played for the Valerie Page Shield where the Ballarat Highlands defeated Geelong by 4 shots (91-87) capturing the Page Shield in the process.

“It was a closely fought match which the Ballarat Highlands won by 4 shots,” said BHBR Women’s team manager Lynette Bryce from BMS.

The Elaine Webster Memorial Shield match was played in the afternoon with Geelong women’s side dominating to score a 24 shot victory, finishing with a 96-74 final score.

“Unfortunately, in the afternoon’s competition for the Webster Shield the prevailing weather conditions changed with the wind picking up and the pace of the green quickened which the Geelong adjusted to early and saw them taking out the second game,” Lyn said.

“The Victoria Bowling Club did a great job presenting their greens and facilities for the day’s competition and were excellent hosts.”

The best performing rink for the BHBR ladies was that of Sarah Braybrook’s side, comprising Helena Cyrulo (Gisborne) Beth Huntley (Creswick), Amy Newman (Ballarat North) & Sarah Braybrook (Webbcona).

Valerie Page was on hand to present the Page Shield to the winning Ballarat Highlands team at the conclusion of the day’s events.