Melbourne Too Strong

The Sunday Age

Sunday March 2, 2008

Geoff Mathers

YESTERDAY'S Premier division finals provided brilliant bowls and a thrilling finish in both games as the two matches came down to the last end of the day.

It was classic bowling on outstanding greens running 18 seconds at Glenroy in sunny but windy conditions.

Melbourne caught Moonee Ponds lead at the break, and the lead changed three or four times but never by more than six.

The Ponds held a one-shot lead after 94 ends but could not close out the match despite a brilliant performance by Mark Jacobsen's third Dale Kett, who handled green with controlled touch. Jacobsen managed to sneak a rink tie after securing three on his last end against Brett Leighton.

Moonee Ponds will line up against Essendon on Saturday after it wore down Yarraville/Footscray in the second half.

Y/F led the Bombers into the break 52/33 and running hot, but by the 83rd end the Bombers put their nose in front, and held the lead right to the last, where Y/F needed five shots to force a extra end playoff.

Skip Alan Dove held five shots at the head for the win, but Essendon's new young-gun skip Alan Woodrow changed the head twice to win the elimination final and the right to play Moonee Ponds on Saturday at a venue yet to be announced.

The Ponds won't make the same mistake again and will end up as Melbourne's grand final opponents in a match they should win if they close ranks.

One of the fantastic highlights of yesterday's Glenroy final was watching the narrow-gutted bowls now demanded by the majority of the states best, so as to eliminate the margin of bias required to run straighter.

So to watch these skinny bowls being thrown out a rink-and-a-half to dead draw to the jack was a delight to all bowls purists.

Doncaster hosted the division one finals and the unbackable premiership favourite Clayton whitewashed Rosamond by 20 shots after leading by 40 shots at 60 ends.

The star-studded Clayton team go straight into the grand final and a return to Premier division next season.

Rosamond will now play Burwood in the preliminary final on Saturday, after a 10-shot win over Altona-2, which was eliminated.

© 2008 The Sunday Age

Back to News Index | Back to Home