Round 9 Premier division Click here to return to Pennant Scene

January 6, 2007
The rink of Anthony Provost (skip) Doc Oakley, Steve Hughes and Shane Knott played the only other undefeated rink in the Premier League, the rink of Lance Strahan(skip) Daniel Wood, Greg Hill and Peter Healy in a winner take all contest..

---------------------------------THE BEST IN THE WEST

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------------L/R: Anthony Provost, Shane Knott, Steve Hughes, Doc Oakley

There are four happy clubs this weekend after Sherro has tipped them to win, Bedford the only let down for Sherro.

Club Played Won lost Draw rink Wins for Agst Points %
Osborne Pk 9 6 3   25* 742 643 49 . 5 119 .10
Bedford 9 6 3   22***** 734 640 48 . 5 114. 0
Melville 9 6 3   23** 738 631 48 . 0 116 . 0
Doubleview 9 7 2   19* 744 632 47 . 5 115. 89
Wanneroo 9 4 4 1 18* 684 679 36 . 5 100 .70
Cambridge 9 4 4 1 15** 700 719 34. 0 97 . 40
Cockburn 9 3 6   17** 680 679 30 . 0 100.15
Morley 9 3 6   13* 393 498 25 . 5 83 . 80
Kalamunda 9 3 6   10* 597 758 23 . 0 78 . 76
Leeming 9 2 7   9* 622 750 17. 5 82. 90
                   
                   

Rink wins * draw

MELVILLE MAGIC (6.5 ) DEF BEDFORD BULLS (1.5) ......83/67

---------------------
Jon Sharp (skip), Bomber Gearing, Roger Barns, John Birch----.-------.20
S.Bainbridge (skip), S.Rushforth,  N. Minchin, K.Burke
----------------.--20

What a fascinating game of bowls to watch! It was an unbelievable result and I liken it to A football match where one side kicks 12 goals 29 points and the other side kicks 17 goals.
The Magic had a leader, John Birch who won his position comprehensively. Their second Roger Barns also won his position on the day. The third, Bomber Gearing won his position but had to contend with a pretty good contest from Steve Rushforth.
So there we have the front three Magic players in control, they always had bowls around the head and were on top of their opponents..


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Bomber Gearing draws the shot, his first bowl is 9 inches behind the jack and was outdrawn by Steve Rushforth and you can see his response with an even closer bowl which was a toucher.

L/R: Lance Strahan, Roger Barns, Kevin Burke, Bomber, Stu and Steve conferring

The difference was that the back end combo of Stu Bainbridge and Steve Rushforth who held the fort while playing to a losing front half.

By rights the Bedford rink should have been smashed so it says something for the game of their back half.

Melville were so well served by John Birch leading and Roger Barns tho not quite as good as John overall was more than serviceable for his side.
Bomber Gearing had a huge game and he would have been delighted with his game.

Jon Sharp did have a pretty fair game and did some good things but because of the effectiveness of the Bedford back half he had a harder job on his hands to try to undo their great work. Perhaps a noticeable thing about Jons game was he did not play a middle range type shot during the game and relied on either a draw or a drive.

Stu Bainbridge saved some big numbers and overall was the difference between a draw and a huge loss. Perhaps his most notable thing was he never played a drive but occasionally played a swinging running shot or two or three during the game.

About the game briefly Melville led 7/2 on the 5th end Bedford drew level 7/7 on the 7th end. Melville shot out to lead 17/10 on the 13th end. Bedford hit the front to lead 20/19 on the 20th end.
The last end was wild and woollie one when you consider that the game was up for grabs, with only Bedford Third Steve Rushforth close to the jack, about a yard behind with both bowls.
Jon Sharp with the pressure on, fell short with his first bowl, Stu Bainbridge also did the same. Jon Sharp steadied and rose to the occasion with his next and drew the shot about 18 inches from the jack to draw the game and Stu never got close.
It is hard to beleive that the game was on the line for the Magic being one down with and end to go and to have lost would have been, WELL, UNBELEIVABLE.

Melville won 12 ends to Bedford 9 ends


Best players in order

3. Bomber Gearing. 2. John Birch .1 Stu Bainbridge

A. Provost (skip), Doc Oakley, Steve Hughes , S. Knott ......----.. ...-------......22
L. Strahan (sk) D. Wood  (skip), G.Hill,   P.Healy------------------------------13

This would have been the lead game for Sherro, problem was this game was on the very middle rink of the green and it is very difficult to mark all the bowls that are played when one is so far away from the action. None the less I was lucky enough to see some of the game.
It don't get better than this. The big Ant and his boys taking on the only other unbeaten rink so far in the Premier League after 8 rounds. Who would bend, who would buckle in the rink clash of the season?? WHO, WHO WHO.


--------------------------THE BIG GUNS GO HEAD TO HEAD
-------------------------------
------------------------L/R: Lance Strahan, Anthony Provost


The game started out with some great heads but it was mainly Bedford who had the best heads and placed the big Ant under a lot of pressure, but he was up to the task playing some exceptionally good bowls when down. He always had the right weight for the occasion. At the conclusion of the 8th end it was 5/5 each.

Lance had his moment when he had the heat placed on him and would cause most of us to really suck in some air and it is a moment most of us dread, Ant played a bomb of a bowl to drag the jack to make 7 shots, Lance drew it cold to make a spectacular save.

Lance and his boys shot away to lead 12/5. The clash between the skips was a treat to watch. Both turning it on for their respective sides.

I was not able to keep an eye on proceedings but from here on the Magic players started to contribute a lot more than they had up to this point of time and went from 12/5 down to lead 20/12 on the 18th end and seemed to have control of the game and when you think that they won 22/13 and keep their opponents down to winning one end only from the 11th end tells us a lot about the game and the players

Melville won 12 ends to 9

Well done to the Magic boys and they are the rink of the year so far and my bet is they going for a season with out a loss -- can they do it?? Why not!!


R.Butler (skip) ,Kiran Cousins, C. Fleay, M. Trewhella....--------.........18
P.Harris (skip), B. Gartrell, B.Donovan,, M. Lemos,
-------------------.-24

This game was the the only saving grace for the Bulls. After 6 ends it was 8/4 for the Bulls, 13/4 on end 8. The Bedford Bulls were in control and shot away to lead 24/11 on the 18th end. Magic boys came back into the contest somewhat to salvage an honorable loss with 24/11, 24/14/,24/15, 24/18 to make the scoreboard look more respectable.

Cam Girvan (skip), B. Mitchell, R. Kennedy, J. Andrew....----------.--....23
The Jones Boy (skip), C.Graybrook, Paul Hunter, V.Colley-----------.---10

The Jones Boy and his rink go down big time to Cameron Girvan and his rink. This is a great win to Cameron and his boys because this is the first time this Bedford rink has been smashed this season, so far they have been solid with two small losses
The game started out with Cameron 3/4 down on the 6th end. Well that was the closest the scores would be again for the rest of the match. It turned out to be a cakewalk for Cam and his boys. It was 17/7 on the 15th end and finally 23/10
It was good to see Bob Mitchell back playing for the Magic and when he is on song there is a lot to sing about!

Melville won 12 ends to 9

The word was Cameron Girvan was the best player in the game.

 

OSBORNE PARK SAINTS (7) DEF WANNEROO EXPRESS (1 ) ..............86/65

D. Trewhella (skip), Pat Caffell J. Tyrer, S. Wattleworth...........---..........23
Neville Stevens (skip), John Carter, Ken Boswell, Reg Humphryson-.---.16

Bill Galloway (skip), Ian Payne.G. Nicol, P. Maynard ....... --....--. .........19
Stein Davies (skip), Ted.Alden, Murray Hulbert, Derrick Griffin
---...---17

Gary Caffell(skip),Wings Evans. G. King, J. Coleman.................... .........26
C.Adams (skip), Derek Bowen, Gary Cox, Russ Bates,
----------------------9

J. Goddard (skip),Fred Di Giuseppe C. Guelfi, D. Appleton .. .....- .-.......18
Geoff Ellis (skip), Ron Bates, Sean Wright, L. Johnson
-L. Johnson-----23

As expected the Saints bring home the bacon and give the Wanneroo Express a reminder that if you take your foot off the accelerator you will pay with a loss.

Gary Caffell came back hard after last weeks loss to take the Wanneroo wizard and his rink to the cleaners to set up the win.
Daniel Trewhella and his rink have continued their winning streak to bowl over the hard to beat rink of Neville Stevens
Bill Galloway and his boys are continuing their great form to knock over the tough rink of Stein Davies
Geoff Ellis takes the only point for the Express to become the leading rink at Wanneroo.

CAMBRIDGE KNIGHTS (7.5) DEF KALAMUNDA (0.5) ............. 89/77

S.Edmonds (skip) C.Lander,, C.McKenna,G.Kane,----------------------24
M. Biglan (skip) G.Payne, P. Coyle, N. Bruce - ------------------.-------.18

T.Smallacombe(skip) N.Lewis,N.Bolton,B.Kiely-------.-----..-----------19
N.Griffin (skip), B. Tie, E.Martin,J. Rollnik
------------- -----------.----.19

R. Stockton (skip) T.Walsh,A.Heal,, H.Christensen--- - -- -----------.-24
N.Payne (skip) R.Eddy, F.Anderson,G. Carbines
----------------.------.20


B.Katunarich (skip) M.McGann, W.Maher, D.Irvin.--------------------.22
B.Brandsma(skip) M. Clancy, R.Hutchinson, M. Douthie --------------20


The Knights do the job as expected in their win against Kalamunda. The scores all round do indicate it was a tight contest and as always we see Neale Griffin's rink snag a draw against the best Cambridge rink, that of State Pairs winner Trystan Smallacombe.
Billy Brandsma just going down to the up and down rink of Brian Katunarich.
Ron Stockton's boys had a win against a much improved showing by Neil Payne's rink.


D/VIEW POWERHOUSE (7) DEF MORLEY (1) ........75/70

K McIlroy, P Buller, G. Nelson, G Papadopolous-------------------------17
R. Urquhart (skip), J. Heiden, B. Driscoll, A. Elmer -------.------------.15

L Thorn, J Slavich, D Slavich, M. Mitchell -------------------------------22
P. Aungier (skip) J Sheridan , A. Barron, M. Callcott --------------.----18

D Katunarich, A Delaporte, R Dempsey, J Wholohan -------------------15
W. Neilson (skip) ,? Holland, ? ford, Cobby ---------------------.--------21

R Ball,(skip) B Urquhart, C Slavich, W Langdon
-------------------.-----21
B. Walter (skip), M. Robinson, M. Manning, B. Urquhart --- ----------.16

The PowerHouse just get there against a determined Morley side sneaking across the line by five shots. The aggregate was in the balance close to the end of the game.

L/R: John Slavich and John Sheridan opposing thirds all pals after a hard fought game.

Morley should be happy to see they can mix it with the power clubs and the PowerHouse don't come any bigger in this regard.
They would certainly have the respect of any club in the competition now.

Robbie Ball's rink have broken a four game losing streak by winning in the friday game against the Knights and now followed up with a win against Bruce Walter who is an under rated skipper.

Kyle McIlroy just got there against Robbie Urquhart's rink who have been very busy this season,

The State selector has come up trumps again with a win against the best Morley rink, that of Peter Aungier .
Wayne Neilson's rink are very hard at it and to see them take the Kat out of the equasion, while a surprise, shows what can be acheived in the game of bowls.

Cockburn (8) DEF LEEMING (0) ..............90/51

D. Brown(sk) M. Zusman , J. Ravilich, S. Novak -------------------.----17
D. Comrie (skip) A.Pryce, N. Braken, ? Caldow -------------------------16

G. Carberry,(Skip), M. Brown, N.Pascoe, S. West -----------------------26
W. Heldt (skip) B. West, G. Dobie, G. Strahan------ ---- ---- .--- -------6

S. Srhoy (Skip), A. Petchell, I. Jakovich, S. Vassallio-------------------.25
R. Ryder (sk) ,J. Richards, T. Glendinning, J.Oliver ----------------..---15


R. Hughes (Skip), D. Penman , J. Galipo, ? Bancroft, ------------- ------22
J. Conner (skip), G. Gould, Pemberton, G. Ford--------------------------14

Cockburn have bounced back into form with a huge win over the Leeming club with Gary Carberry setting up the win after retuning to the skippers role. Norm Pascoe, who has been a star player for the Roosters has returned to the fray playing as two for Gary. This augers well for the Roosters with his return but it just might be a tad late to get the club into the finals. No Rooster side has ever missed out on making the final four in the history of the club.

For the sake of the competition it would great to see Cockburn keep on the winners list and make for an intersting second round of pennants.

Danny Comrie with his rink almost won the point against Daniel Brown and his rink is the one to beat down at Leeming.


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