CRANBOURNE BOWLS
Cranbourne had a fantastic weekend in Pennant finals with three teams participating and all three coming out winners.
Side 1 and 4 had a direct passage through to their respective Sectional Grand Finals after impressive major semi-final wins on Saturday, while side 2 went back-to-back in elimination and preliminary finals over the weekend to earn their shot at the big dance.
Club Chairperson Tony Collins gave a stirring inspirational speech to the players before the game and with the winning results at the end of the day he was a very happy man.
“We have had a very successful year so far, but it is time the club takes the next step and wins pennant premierships which would put the icing on the cake,” Collins said.
WEEKEND PENNANT
Semi Finals
• Side 1 Division 2 Sec 8
MAJOR SEMI-FINAL – SATURDAY
Cranbourne 79 defeated Narre Warren 74
What a tough game of exciting bowls this contest was. The two top teams in Division 2, Cranbourne and Narre Warren, fought out one of the best games of bowls for the year and both sides had chances to win the game.
With only six ends to go both teams were tied and the noise from the players and supporters was deafening.
With only two rink sides left on the green it was down to the magic of skips, Shane Jakins and Jammie Corney, to win the game and they did not let the club down with Cranbourne getting up by five shots to put them into the grand final next Saturday.
Skip Jammie Corney and his team of Joe Byrne, Karen Hickson and Gavin Wright were outstanding and won by 18 shots while skip Lynne Quigg and his team of Garry Hunt, Peter Elgar and Doug Boggie won by 12 shots.
Shane Jakins was awarded the MVP medallion after the game for the Most Valuable Player for the entire year. Congratulations Shane on your achievement.
Narre Warren bounced back from its semi-final loss on Saturday to defeat Ferntree Gully in the preliminary final on Saturday.
This means Cranbourne and Narre Warren will reacquaint themselves in the Sectional Grand Final at Noble Park on Saturday.
• Side 2 Division 3 Sec 8
ELIMINATION FINAL – SATURDAY
Cranbourne 96 defeated Narre Warren 68
Cranbourne played Narre Warren 2 at home in an elimination final on Saturday and won by a convincing 28 shots.
Skip Barry Thomas and his crew of Gwen Scott, John Stanley and Tristan Vorbach won by 13shots while Skip Nick Arnold and his crew of Lesley Deal, Kirsty Tootell, and Fred Scicluna won by 15 shots.
PRELIMINARY FINAL – SUNDAY
Cranbourne 92 defeated Hampton Park 89
Cranbourne headed to Noble Park on Sunday to take on Hampton Park in the preliminary final, with a grand final spot up for grabs.
This was a tight game right to the very end with Cranbourne prevailing thanks to the winning rink of Skip Steve Hickson, who guided his team of Chadd Tootell, William Bradbury and Roger Roscoe to a 32-22 victory.
Skip Barry Thomas and his team of Gwen Scott, John Stanley and Tristan Vorbach made it a perfect weekend for their rink with a hard-fought 17-15 victory.
Cranbourne 2 now heads to the Mulgrave Country Club on Saturday to take on Dandenong Club 3 in the Sectional Grand Final.
• Side 4 Division 7 Sec 8
MAJOR SEMI-FINAL – SATURDAY
Cranbourne 72 defeated Dandenong Club 61
Brilliant bowling by skip George Ljepojevic, supported by his team members Sandra Mueller, Denis Tomlin and Dermot McConville – who won by 19 shots – gave victory to Cranbourne by 11 shots and put them straight through to the grand final.
Skip Yvonne Van der Wees was also successful, leading her team of Frank Male, John Keen and Gerrard Dudink to a 17-13 victory.
Dandenong Club was then defeated by Berwick on Sunday meaning Cranbourne and Berwick will square off for the Sectional title at Noble Park Bowls Club this Saturday.
MIDWEEK PENNANT
The Cranbourne 3 Division 4 team has done Midweek Pennant proud by winning their last game of the season and securing a finals spot.
Led by Skip Steve Hickson, Billy Bradbury, Karen Hickson and Kristi Hickson defeated their opponents by 19 shots. Yvonne Van Der Wees had a tussle all day, but came out on top by one shot. Another tight tussle perused in Peter Colthup’s rink, only going down by six shots. Congratulation team on a great result and being our only team to make finals.
• Cranbourne 3 (61) defeated Berwick 4 (47).
Cranbourne 1 travelled to Coatesville to play the top of the ladder team. Unfortunately our players found out why Coatesville 1 are ladder leaders and playing on their home turf our three teams tried hard, but were clearly outgunned on all three rinks.
• Cranbourne 1 (32) defeated by Coatesville 1 (93).
Cranbourne 2 hosted second-placed Dandenong Club 1 on the front grass green and put up a good fight, but went down two rinks to one. This team had a better second half season following a slow start and finished in fifth place…a great team effort. The rink of the day, led by Skip John Kent, saw Scott De Piazza, Phil Neilson and Frank Verco win 20-18.
• Cranbourne 2 (50) defeated by Dandenong Cub 1 (74).
Cranbourne 4 played Edithvale 3 at home and had a ding-dong battle all day going down by two rinks to one. With one rink winning by 25 shots and one losing by the same margin it came down to the final rink and battle they did, but went down 24-26 and the overall resulted in a two-shot loss.
Best rink was skipped by Rob Sorenson, with Dermot McConville, Tony Hughes and Helen Blake.
• Cranbourne 4 (68) defeated by Edithvale 3 (70).
-Garry Hunt and Derek Maguire-
