Men’s Saturday Pennant wrap

by Aaron Delaporte on April 8, 2019

After a big season of bowls the Blooms The Chemist Metropolitan Pennant season was wrapped up when the finals of the Men’s Saturday Competition were completed yesterday. Premier League, 1st White and 1st Blue all played at Yokine Bowling Club on Sunday morning whilst the remaining divisions wrapped up on Saturday afternoon.

Premier League

In one of he closest seasons of Premier League in which 9 sides finished within just a few wins of each other including a very unlucky Sorrento in 9th place being demoted the finals were expected to be a good contest.

South Perth who finished on top had the advantage of the home ground in the semi finals and went straight to the grand final with a comprehensive win over Doubleview whilst Kardinya staged a memorable come from behind win over Cambridge. Doubleview bounced back in the preliminary final defeating Kardinya to set up what would be an epic final.

Back on grass at Yokine Bowling Club Doubleview were expected to be much harder to beat for South Perth who were looking for their first flag since 1971/72 season. Doubleview started brilliantly and had quickly established a 10 shot lead after only a few ends across the rinks. That was shortly gone when Justin Opie’s side picked a big 6 against Charlie Slavich and the other rinks putting some scores on the board not only was the aggregate close but every rink was within a few shots. Both teams were trading shots for the first half of the match until Scott Edmonds rink put a string of ends together over Neale Griffin’s rink to give Doubleview a handy advantage. However once again South Perth raced back into contention. Justin Opie’s rink picked up another big score as did Scott Walkers rink who had gotten behind against Ryan Moyle. Glenn Pauling’s rink had started to move away against John Slavich and suddenly South Perth were 4 shots up with only 20 ends to play.

The Doubleview players found their voice as they urged each other on and the team responded as the match started to draw to a close Doubleview had again got their noses in front. Charlie Slavich’s rink grabbed a single to defeat Justin Opie and Ryan Moyle’s side recorded a 4 shot win over Scott Walker. This left the other two rinks to play out their last ends together with Doubleview leading by just two shots overall. South Perth gained a glimmer of hope when Tom Antonio put a bowl right on the jack for his team however the extremely consistent side of Glenn Pauling were not able to get anything close and crossed over 1 down. The tension really rose as the skips crossed over, John Slavich drew a counter for Doubleview whilst on the other rink Neale Griffin drew a great shot which saw Scott Edmonds play weight to send the jack back albeit still two down. Glenn Pauling need to draw shot to give South Perth a big chance of winning however he pulled up short and when John Slavich edged off a short bowl to add another counter and claim 3 shots on his rink it meant the remaining South Perth rink needed 5 to force a draw. Griffin with just one bowl left had to try and kill the end and when it just missed the Doubleview players went up in celebration to claim the flag. Edmonds and his rink 7 shot winners for Doubleview whilst Glenn Pauling’s rink had played a great game to secure a 9 shot win for South Perth but just not enough to stop Doubleview claiming back to back Premier League flags.

Bowls WA live streamed the final which can be viewed on the Bowls WA Facebook Page.

1st White

After having secured promotion to Premier League North Beach and Mosman Park played a great match to see who would be crowned 1st White pennant champions. Similar to the Premier League grand final it was the top two teams for the year battling it out with Mosman Park who were in front for most of the match having to withstand a solid fight back from a determined North Beach team.

Coming into the last end Mosman Park held a two shot lead and with North Beach’s best rink for the day left playing the last end it set up for a thrilling finish. However Mosman Park played a great end with Damian Adams trailing the jack it made it extremely difficult for North Beach to get the needed 3 shots. Skip Mark Douthie resorted to trying to kill the end but couldn’t connect as Mosman Park took the flag with their player very jubilant with the triumph.

For the winners Mosman Park Chris McKenna and his team had a 31-16 win which with the 19-14 victory by Paul Walker secured victory. Graeme Wishart and Geoff Devenish played out a 20 all draw whilst Douthie had a 30-13 victory for North Beach.

1st Blue

Respective North and South ladder leaders Bassendean and Cockburn played off for the flag in 1st Division Blue. It was Bassendean who started much the better and quickly opened up an unassailable lead. Eugene O’Sullivan rink just awesome as they lead 22-2 before the half way mark. Cockburn showed some fight but could never seriously threaten as Bassendean ran out convincing 102-85. Winning rinks for Bassendean on the day were Joe Krstic 33-22, Rod Revell 22-15 and O’Sullivan 29-21 whilst for Cockburn veteran Marko Krajancic won 27-18.

In the challenge playoffs both South Perth and Rossmoyne defeated their 1st White opponents to take a promotion.

2nd Division

Second Division saw the closest finish of the day as Manning and Quinns Rocks played a great final. In unbelievable scenes the match finished in a draw with the players forced to go out and play an extra end. The extra end once again resulted in another drawn aggregate before Manning finally clinched the flag on the second extra end.

Best rinks for the victors were those skipped by Alan Pryce winning 22-14 and Graham O’Brien who won 24-19.

Joining both Manning and Quinns Rocks as promoted teams into 1st Blue were Mt Lawley and Fremantle.

3rd Division

Nollamara took the 3rd Division pennant flag after a great season in which they lost just the one game. They were extremely dominant in the finals series winning their semi final 90-64 over Kardinya and then defeating Bassendean 103-71 in the grand final.

Recruit Peter Vellios with a 35-6 win for Nollamara setting up the victory as they move into 2nd division next season with finalists Bassendean, Bayswater and Kardinya. Winning promotion finals were Wanneroo, North Beach, South Perth and Manning.

4th Division

Sorrento Bowling Club claimed the 4th division pennant with a comfortable 87-66 victory over Armadale. All 4 rinks had wins for the Swans with the best of them being John Sturk 28-21 and Robert Tozer 19-12.

It was a very good year for the Sorrento side who lost just the two games for the season and especially the rink of Tozer with youngster Mason Gunson, Brian Hogan and Evan Cosh who was the rink in their division with 13 wins from 15 matches plus two wins in the finals.

Also promoted with Sorrento and Armadale were the finalists Cockburn and Bedford plus the promotion final winners Merriwa, Safety Bay, Willetton and Swan who all graduate to 3rd division next year.

5th Division

Claremont Bowling Club had an off season exodus of bowlers from their club but were still able to put a pennant on the wall winning the 3 rink 5th division competition 58-54 over Manning. Best for Claremont was Brian Marsland with a 22-11 victory.

Promoted teams with Claremont and Manning are the finalists Scarborough and Cockburn plus the promotion winners Mundaring, Quinns Rocks, Bullcreek and Roleystone.

6th Division

The two rink 6th division competition was hotly contested however South Perth rose from the pack to play some great bowls and claim the pennant. They went into the finals after topping their division by just 1 point and having to play away at Bedford for the finals series.

In the morning semi final they played Manning and it could have gone either way however South Perth got through with the barest possible margin winning 40-39. Ray Miles the winning skip with a 24-21 victory. In the grand final they really put hosts Bedford to the sword with a huge 55-29 win mainly courtesy of Campbell Williamson’s rink which won 33-9, the biggest margin in any grade across all the grand finals.

Also earning promotion to 5th division with those three mentioned sides are Kardinya and Dalkeith-Nedlands.

Thank you to our Pennant sponsors Blooms The Chemist and congratulations to all the pennant winners.

All results can be viewed via the Bowls WA Competition Portal