CARDINIA WATERS BOWLS
Midweek Report
Cardinia Waters has felt a player shortage recently, and it showed dramatically last Tuesday when both Midweek Pennant sides suffered serious losses at the hands of Cranbourne Bowls Club.
Side one played at home, and were well beaten, unlike earlier in the season opener when they beat Cranbourne away.
However this time they failed to win any of the 16 points up for grabs.
Relying on some players who normally play in side two may have been costly. The final score of 76/55 was going to be worse, but the Cardinia Waters showed some spirit late in the game.
One rink was rueing their poor form after leading Cranbourne 10/0 after four ends, then allowing their opponents back in the game to lose 22/16.
Cardinia Waters side one seem out of touch with the final four now. They are in sixth place, and next Tuesday play Dandenong Club away.
In a stunning surprise, side two were comprehensively thrashed, playing against Cranbourne side two on the synthetic surface at Cranbourne.
Needing their reserves to field the side shouldn’t have affected Cardinia Waters who were ladder leaders before this game. But in a complete form reversal all three rinks suffered large losses, and left the players reeling at the final score of 25/87.
Before this game, Cardinia Waters stood on top of the ladder…now they are in third spot, four points behind Dandenong RSL and just one point behind Willowlodge.
They play the “lodgers” at home next Tuesday, and will be looking for a result like the round two game earlier in the season when they won a hard-fought event.
Open Pairs final
Australia Day saw Cardinia Waters Bowls Club conduct the final of the club’s Championship Open Pairs.
Keith Lewis and Ray Naylor were pitted against Mick Knight and Ashley Graham, and what a game it was.
Mick and Ashley took the game up to their favoured opponents early in the 18-end game.
They stayed in the lead until the fourteenth end when Keith and Ray got their noses in front. Their experience shone through and they won 17/11.
It was planned for the Ladies Singles Final to be played at the same time as the pairs, but sickness has delayed that game to a date to be decided.
Saturday Pennant
Two wins from two games was a satisfying result for Cardinia Waters last Saturday.
However the result included our side one playing Pakenham side two. The local derby between the Villagers and the Lions is always an intense and hard fought game and realistically the most important game of the year. Given that Cardinia Waters were in seventh spot on the ladder and Pakenham were languishing on the bottom the game was more about pride than points.
The Lions team included four village residents, and the Village team included a similar number of former Pakenham players. Stirred on by the Norm Box ‘Lion Roar’ Pakenham took the game right up to Cardinia Waters.
An early Pakenham lead was dissolved into a Cardinia Waters one shot lead at afternoon tea.
After the break, and a vocal rev up, Pakenham launched an assault on the Village team and took a handy lead. To the home team’s credit though, they withstood the challenge and came home strongly to win the game by 10 shots.
Best performed rink was Bill Hite (skip) Ashley Graham, Jim Barrie and Terry Nye who had a 10-shot victory over Peter Bott’s rink 25/15. Ray Naylor (skip), with Tom Gogan, Jim Smith and Donny Gibson also recorded a solid win 26/22 against the Roger Platt rink.
Winning on Saturday has lifted Cardinia Waters to sixth position on the ladder, and next Saturday they play Narre Warren away. Something to look forward to, the side will be playing on the new covered greens at Fountain Gate.
Side two also won the points playing away at Cheltenham.
Of the three rinks contested Cardinia Waters won two including one monster score of 30/7. That rink consisted of Marie Stephenson (skip), Dennis Patmore, Brian Byrne and Alan Copley.
The other winning rink consisted of Stuart Tokely (skip), John Carr, Peter Mitchell and Jenny Cole. This combination led early, surrendered the lead on 18, then won the last three ends to take the game 22/19.
Side two are now in third spot on the ladder, and next week play Highett at home. Earlier in the season they beat Highett on their turf, and Cardinia Waters will be hoping for a repeat at home.
-John Moore-
