Ballarat 23-24 BHBR Saturday Pennant Semi Final Wrap

Winning form in the weeks leading into the commencement of the first game of finals played on Saturday saw successful bowling teams progress through in the Pennant final rounds.

Victoria’s Division 4, 7 and 8 sides go through to play in the Preliminary finals this Saturday whilst the Club’s Division 1 team bowled strongly in the two finals played on the weekend to now progress to contest the Division 1 grand final against Sebastopol which will be played this coming Sunday.

Victoria’s Peter Elshaug said “we were pleased that all up we had 10 new players participating in finals in their first season of bowls with the Club which we consider is a great achievement.”

Ballarat North’s Division 5 side won their semi final in a tightly contested match by 5 shots over Mt Xavier and now qualify for the grand final to be played on Saturday, 16th March.

Mt Xavier contest the preliminary final this Saturday against City Oval who had a strong win over Victoria with all rinks up in Division 5 games played at the Smeaton Bowling Club.

City Oval’s Ian Robinson said “we had two of our rinks start off strongly with Peter Oxlade’s rink leading 18 shots to 2 at one stage whilst Robert Vance’s rink performed well taking an 18 shot to 5 lead early in the game which set things up for us for the rest of the afternoon.”

“This Saturday’s preliminary final against Mt Xavier will be tough as they are a good side.”

“Our Division 8 side now progressed straight through to the grand final after their semi final 5 shot win over Linton who had a good season and headed the division competition throughout so that was a great achievement made possible by a strong win by John Tansley’s rink who scored 34 shots to 13.”

In the Division 2 finals played at Sebastopol bowling club Saturday Smeaton won strongly with all rinks up over Victoria and now go through to play Midlands in this Saturday’s Preliminary.

Ballarat East reversed the results of the previous week’s game against Midlands to score the win that sees the side go through to contest the Grand final in a week’s time.

Ballan’s Division 3 & 6 sides had good season’s heading up the ladder after the season’s regular home and away competition and the semi final played at Buninyong saw the team compete against the two BMS sides.

Ballan’s David O’Hanlon’s rink set up the win with a 31 shot victory and whilst BMS’ Michael Hampson scored a good 11 shot win and the other rink scores were close it was unable to offset the O’Hanlon rink score.

The Ballan Division 3 side now progress through to the final whilst the Club’s Division 6 side front up this Saturday to play Waubra after the side lost a tightly fought contest against BMS with each team scoring wins on two rinks with the deciding factor being the Adrian Venville’s rink that came away with a 9 shot win.

Ballan’s David O’Hanlon said “things are going well around the Club in recent years and we have won grand finals in the last two years and have progressed up and we look forward to completing another good season.”

“We have recruited a number of younger players to the Club and now have a good mix of younger and experienced players across all age groups.”

“Our small Club retains a friendly family atmosphere which I am sure all helps contribute to our success.”

Both Invermay and Ballarat East had strong wins in Saturday’s semi finals with Ballarat East going straight through to the grand final whilst Invermay will meet Victoria to play off in this weekend’s preliminary final for the right to play off in the grand final.