Valentine’s Day saw the last round of Weekend Pennant Bowls played as next week the finals begin.
On a beautiful Saturday to play bowls, the four Cranbourne teams took to the rinks with high hopes and the following are the results.
Cranbourne 1 Div 1, playing at home on the front grass green, took on Beaumaris 1 in a ding-dong battle.
The best rink was skipped by Chris Hunt, third Lyn Quigg, second Kirsty Tootell and lead Steve Bentley, as the team enjoyed a great victory, winning their rink (35-11) +24 shots.
Next best was the rink skipped by Gerry Schryver, third Chadd Tootell, second Billy Gilchrist and lead Dale Henry, winning their rink by nine shots (26-17) +9 shots.
Barry McKay’s team had a close game with their opponents, just going down by -5 shots (19-24).
The team skipped by Gavin Wright had a battle all day and eventually was overrun by their opponents, going down (10-32) -22 shots.
However, Cranbourne 1 Div 1 had overall come out victorious, well done lads and lassies.
Cranbourne 1 Div 1 (90) def Beaumaris 1 (84) -6 shots and 14 points.
Cranbourne 2 Div 2 hit the road and 40 minutes later were at Clayton Bowling Club, where they took on their third team.
Winning three rinks and sharing one, the Cranbourne team enjoyed a great day.
Best rink was skipped by Neil (Drummo) Drummond who, along with third Roberto Bernardo, second Billy Bradbury and lead Scott DePiazza, had the best of their opponents winning (21-12) +9 Shots.
Next best was the rink of skip Tony Collins, third Phil Nielsen, second John Anstiss and lead Vic Butera with a nice six shot win (19-13).
Probably having been the best skip all season in Cranbourne 2, Hans Worsteling continued on his merry way, along with Chris Stevenson third, Chris Stevenson, second John Stanley and lead Barry Graham, winning their rink (20-15) +5 shots.
Skip Nick Arnold, third Ian Barrenger, second Roger Roscoe and lead Dennis Tomlin had a very honourable draw with their opponents and after 21 ends they could not be separated and finished (24-24), sharing a point each.
Well done everyone.
Cranbourne 2 Div 2 (84) def Clayton 3 (64) +20 shots and 17 points.
Cranbourne 3 Div 4 travelled to Mulgrave Country Club to take on Mulgrave CC4.
We played on rinks 16 through 19 and for many of us this was the quickest grass green we’ve ever played on.
Beautiful green in condition, but I personally had trouble getting the weight right and every time and inevitably the bowls would continue to run on.
The team we were up against had a fairly good day, with all four playing well and they finished strongly to win by 14 shots (8-22).
The final team, skipped by Brian Turton, third Jo Alsop, second Jacqui Warner and lead Kate Sharpe only went down by six shots (14-20).
Cranbourne 3 (69) def by Mulgrave CC 4 (80) -11 shots and 4 points.
Cranbourne finished sixth on the ladder and avoided relegation.
We must thank our neighbours Noble Park 1 for the heroic effort they put in place today by beating Dandenong Club 4 at Dandenong to keep Cranbourne out of relegation, thanks to Cranbourne’s four points achieved and Noble Park’s magnificent win.
Cranbourne 4 Div 5 played at home on the front synthetic against Mulgrave Country Club 5.
Best rinks for Cranbourne 5 was skipped by David McMaster, third Peter Margiannis, second Liz Hughes and lead Helen Winter who won their rink (17-15) +2 shots and 4 points.
The next best rink was skipped by Steve Bakker, third Rob Gye, second Olive Stanley and lead Theresa Von Oppeln who only went down by 4 shots (15-19).
Our other two rinks went down heavily, but tried very hard.
Cranbourne 4 Div 5 (55) def by Mulgrave Country Club 5 (98) -43 shots and 2 points.
MIDWEEK PENNANT
On a cooler morning which started with a little drizzle, we started the second last round of Midweek Pennant with two teams playing at home, and one away at Mulgrave Country Club.
Let’s start with our very brave Cranbourne 1 team, who hosted top of the ladder Mulgrave CC1 on the front grass green and they put up a mighty effort to win.
The best rink was skipped by Ron (2dogs) Lyfield, third Yvonne VanDerWees, second Chris Sharpe and lead Scott DePiazza, who had his best day since recovering from back surgery around November last year, and the team provided our returning skip with a great win by 18 shots, very well done team.
Next best was the rink of skip Nick Arnold, third Louis Magri, second Karen Hickson and lead Vic Butera, who also played some good bowls, only going down by three shots (16-19).
Our third rink skipped by Gavin Wright, third Roger Roscoe, second Steve Hickson and lead John Anstiss, who just fell short, going down (13-19).
Cranbourne 1 Div 1 (56) def Mulgrave CC 1 (47) +9 shots and 12 points.
Cranbourne 2 Div 3 travelled to Mulgrave CC to take on their fourth team and early the signs weren’t looking good.
Just before the lunch break the three scoreboards looked like 5-14, 5-12 and 4-11.
As frustrating as it was, we knew we just had to keep at it and just do our best.
The rink of skip Derek Maguire, third Steve Bentley, second John Kent and lead Brian Turton slowly got back to (10-11) before giving away a five.
After 18 ends we were (12-17) down.
After 20 ends we were (18-18) and on the last end, Derek got a very slight contact on a bowl and it went to a measure.
It went Cranbourne’s way by about one millimetre and we got up and won our rink (19-18).
Harry VanSoest’s rink were 11 shots down after 18 ends, but came rattling home to pick up eight shots on the last three ends to just go down by three shots (16-19).
Our third rink was one down after 18 ends, but just couldn’t finish it off while losing four shots to finish (15-20) down.
As a selector I couldn’t be prouder of all the players that have worked so hard to keep this team from being relegated.
The commitment, heart and hard work has seen this team win five out of seven games with the two losses being an eight and seven shot loss.
Cranbourne 2 Div 3 (50) def by Mulgrave CC4 (57) -7 shots and 2 points.
Cranbourne 3 Div 5 took on our neighbours Noble Park 2 on the front synthetic and the rinks gave a good account of themselves.
Best rink was skipped by David McMaster, third Robert Paganoni, second Claudio Miotto and lead Helen Blake, as they defeated their opponents (18-15), great effort team.
Next best was skip Lois Brock, third Davina Bobetic, second Olive Stanley and lead Jeanne Tomlin who were neck-and-neck most of the day.
With two ends to play and the scores level (20-20), the ladies just couldn’t get to the finish line and eventually went down by four shots (20-24) in a mighty effort.
Our final rink of Skip Bob Bellamy, third Bruce Harper, second Rod Challis and lead Peter Margiannis were (10-10) after 13 ends, but couldn’t hold on and the team eventually went down by 11 shots (12-23).
Cranbourne 3 Div 5 (50) def by Noble Park 2 (63) -13 shots and 2 points.
-Derek Maguire
