The long season reaches its climax for two of Ballarat’s biggest clubs

Two of Ballarat’s big clubs will renew acquaintances once again with Victoria and Sebastopol set to square off in Sunday’s Ballarat Highlands Bowls Regions grand final, to be played at Ballarat.

It’s been an up-and-down season for both sides, but both have found their groove in recent weeks, both knocking off top-team BMS last weekend to earn their place in the decider.

The two sides have clashed twice this season, with Sebastopol getting the job done at Victoria, while Victoria turned the tables later in the season at Sebastopol.

For Sebastopol, this season has been a ride of highs and lows.

Sebastopol skipper Scott Roberts said the club was thrilled to get back to the top flight grand final.

“It’s been an interesting year for us as we’ve got two first-year bowlers in our side and one second-year bowler, we feel we’ve got some inexperience.”

“But we feel as they’ve picked things up during the year, it’s helped our season.”

“Mid-season, I think we were very doubtful to be here, I think we were 3-3 and then we got a bit of a run on from there and things started to click.”

Last weekend Sebastopol put together arguably its best performance of the year with a 103-69 win over BMS. On that occasion it was three wins to Paul Lovell, Rob Baker and Roberts.

“I think the greens were similar to what we had been practicing on, in BMS’s defence, I think they just had an off day and we had a good day, but that’s what can happen in finals,” Scott said.

Opponents Victoria also had a good day out against BMS, winning Sunday’s preliminary final 98-73, thanks to wins skippered by Craig Ford, Stephen Britt and Barry Clark.

Like Sebastopol, Victoria struggled early in the season and to the mid-point it looked unlikely that Victoria would struggle to play finals, let alone have a chance to defend their premiership.

Barry said a few subtle mid-season changes had turned the fortunes of the club around.

“We turned it around the past four weeks, we have Steve Britt head back to skippering, Sunni (Haynes) went back to three, so that stableised that rink a little bit.”

“Noel Verlinden has stepped up to play three for me, so that’s been a good move as well. I think we’ve balanced the sides to be more even.”

“We lost two skippers out of last year’s premiership; it took us a while to work out the skippers.”

“Steve Britt was playing down lower because he wanted to play with brother.”

Barry said last weekend he was always confident after Victoria got the points against Webbcona on Saturday.

“We felt we were on a high and perhaps BMS might have been on a low, we thought their confidence might have been down a bit,” he said.

“The greens were beautiful on Saturday, it was a bit slower on the Sunday and quite windy, but we were fortunate we were able to get the win.”

Barry said he expected a tight match-up on Sunday with little separating the clubs.

BHBR Saturday Pennant Finals Fixture

GRAND FINAL

Sunday, 10th March 2024

Division 1: Sebastopol v Victoria @ Ballarat

View Div 1 teams and results here.

PRELIMINARY FINALS

Saturday, 9th March 2024

Division 2: Midlands vs Smeaton @ Ballarat East

Division 3: BMS vs Central Wendouree @ Sebastopol

Division 4: Victoria vs Sebastopol @ Buninyong

Division 5: Mount Xavier vs City Oval @ Sebastopol

Division 6: Ballan vs Waubra @ Ballarat

Division 7: Victoria vs Invermay @ Ballarat

Division 8: Linton vs Victoria @ Buninyong

Division 9: Daylesford vs Sebastopol @ Ballarat

View Div 2 to 9 teams and results here.

Article courtesy of Ballarat Courier (Greg Gliddon)

Featured photo: Grand final skippers combine, Victoria’s Craig Ford, Sebastopol’s Scott Roberts, Victoria’s Barry Clark, Sebastopol’s Will Matthews, Victoria’s Brenton Coad, Sebastopol’s Rob Baker, Victoria’s Stephen Britt, Sebastopol’s Paul Lovell. (Picture by Lachlan Bence)