Victoria defeat Sebastopol to make it back-to-back Ballarat Division 1 Saturday Pennant titles

Victoria Bowling Club has taken out back-to-back Ballarat Highlands Bowls Region titles in the Ballarat district playing area with a convincing win over Sebastopol Bowling Club, but statistics lie about just how this game unfolded, with the champs getting away only very late in the contest.

Victoria’s 82-65 23-24 BHBR Saturday Pennant Division 1 win was set up by 10-shot victories to both Barry Clark and Brenton Coad rinks, but it can be argued that it was the 22-19 defeat by Stephen Britt’s rink over Paul Lovell’s rink that actually proved the difference.

With more than two-thirds of the ends complete, Stephen and his team trailed 22-10, but managed to pull back the margin to finish just three behind.

At that point in the contest, Sebastopol held a 56-52 lead, but the momentum gain from Stephen’s comeback fed off towards the rest of the team as Barry and Brenton picked up their own close games to race away to convincing wins.

Sebastopol’s other joy came through the rink of Scott Roberts who won a thrilling 16-15 contest against Craig Ford, but it wasn’t enough to give his side victory.

Last season Victoria swept all before them in a dominant rout of the competition, this season, it took until the very last game for them to confirm their finals place.

A narrow win over Webbcona first of all, and then two big wins over BMS and Sebastopol crown the club as the undisputed champions.

Brenton Coad said it was a wonderful achievement for the club to fight back from a poor start to secure the victory.

“It’s sensational, it took a lot of hard work and determination for us to get in there,” he said.

“We just snuck in to the finals.”

“It was touch and go, we had to win that last game to get in.”

“That win against Webbcona was important because it put us on the front foot going into the next day.”

“We had that momentum which we were able to carry on.”

Sebastopol’s Scott Roberts said his side had learned a lot about the season and was proud that his team, with a number of new players this season, had managed to fight its way to the grand final.

“Consistency over all was the difference, their front end was just too good on the day,” he said.

“You need to see four even rinks to be in the chance, and you look at the scores, two rinks, 10 down, it was just too much for us to cover in the end, consistency wins.”

“We’re proud of our season, we got straight through to the grand final and there’s a lot of sides that obviously missed out.”

“We’ve had three new players this year, they will learn a lot from this experience, we know they’ll come back next year bigger and better.”

23-24 BHBR Div 1 Saturday Pennant

Ballarat Div 1 Grand Final

Sebastopol 65 – 82 Victoria (Premiers)

Rink 1: Scott Roberts 16-15 Craig Ford
Rink 2: Will Matthews 14-24 Barry Clark
Rink 3: Rob Baker 13-24 Brenton Coad
Rink 4: Paul Lovell 22-19 Stephen Britt

Viw 23-34 BHBR Ballarat Div 1 Grand Final results here.

Congratulations to Victoria Bowling Club who will now represent Ballarat in the Region pennant final against Kyneton Golf (Highlands) at Kyneton Bowling Club this coming Sunday, 17th March 2024 commencing at 1.00pm.

The winner of this match will go on to represent the region at the Bowls Victoria Champion of State Pennant championships in May.

Please note that this match will comprise 3 rinks of four players (not 4 rinks).

Article courtesy of Greg Gliddon (Ballarat Courier) and picture by Kate Healy.