Men’s Saturday Pennant Wrap
Absolutely perfect weather conditions graced bowlers lucky enough to make finals over the weekend March 27 & 28 as they took to the greens for the last time in the Blooms The Chemist Men’s Saturday Pennant Competition for season 2020-21.
All results from Pennant, Challenge and Promotion Finals from Men’s Saturday Pennants can be found on the Bowls WA Competition Portal
Grades 2-5 played their pennant finals on Saturday and it was four very happy clubs at the end of the day.
Hollywood Subiaco celebrated a return to 1st division by claiming the second division title. They upset finals host Bassendean in the mornings semi-finals by 13 shots before going on to beat Kardinya by just 2. The only rink to win in the final was that of Daniel Byrne (skip), Anthony Byrne, Kim Jefferis and Phil Otley 28-12 who would have been the toast of their team mates.
In 3rd Division Gosnells capped off a great year winning the flag in rather impressive fashion. They were far too good for Bassendean in the morning game getting up by 47 shots and then backed that up with a solid 12 shot victory over Mosman Park.
In 4th Division Fremantle continued some good recent success across all divisions. They survived two very close finishes on the day. In the morning they defeated host club Thornlie 82-79 by just 3 shots before a grand stand finish in the final which they won 83-82 over Bullsbrook. Ray Toey (skip), David Skidmore, Hugh Muir and Ross McGuffie winning 33-13 with a great performance for the Fremantle side to lift them to victory. Special mention to Bullsbrook who played so well but just missed out.
Stirling Bowling Club capped off a great day when they hosted the 5th division finals and claimed the flag with two very good team efforts. In the morning game they had an 18 shot win over Ellenbrook and then backed it up defeating Kalamunda by 19 shots.
With just the one division in 6th grade Mt Lawley were awarded the flag with no finals played after finishing on top of the ladder.
Attention then turned to the Men’s 1st Division competitions with Premier, 1st White and 1st Blue all playing at Yokine on Sunday morning. A huge crowd gathered to cheer on six strongly supported clubs who were looking to claim victory.
The first flag to be decided was in 1st Blue where the North and South top of the ladder sides in Mt Lawley and Cockburn battled it out for the title. Mt Lawley who had started slowly took the win as they over ran Cockburn for a 87-64 victory. The surge came in the middle stages at all Mt Lawley rinks turned up the pressure scoring well, most notable was the team of Mark Masel, Paul Sinden, John Cottier and Peter Callison who trailed 0-11 before going on to win 20-15.
In 1st White Mosman Park held the advantage nearly all day but had to survive a late change from Safety Bay who to their credit never gave up in a very good match. Both sides are headed back to Premier League and the flag is really icing on the cake, they had finished with just 0.5 of a point separating them in the regular season. Mosman Park were beaten in the semi final by Safety Bay by just 3 shots but managed to reverse that when it mattered most winning by 5, showing that there really wasn’t much between the two teams. Best on the day for Mosman Park was the rink of Dale Marsland (skip), Steve Swanson, Willie Tan and Tristan Massang who won by 8. Leader Massang effectively snuffed out the Safety Bay challenge when he nailed the jack on the last end with Safety Bay needing a big score.
The Men’s Premier League final lived up to its billing with the two best teams all year in Osborne Park playing South Perth in the grand final. Those two teams had finished over 16pts clear on top of the ladder and they went shot for shot during a lot of the final.
Osborne Park got the jump at the start of the match on a green that was running beautifully and with almost no breeze spectators saw a great array of shots from sublime pinpoint draws to outstanding conversions. The Saints led 20-5 in the early stages with the rinks skippered by Neville Stevens and Ryan Brown doing the majority of the damage.
As the match progressed South Perth steadied themselves and started to lay down a challenge, as the match approached the half way mark they had narrowed the margin and actually drew level when the Justin Opie rink for South Perth picked up a 6 after an unusually poor end from Cody Packer. Osborne Park however once again steadied the ship and then continued to once again build a double digit margin.
South Perth then made another run for the title. Glen Pauling’s rink of Tyrone Alberti, David Mortley and Derek Angell were the best in the home and away competition and they started to close the gap on the Stevens rink with the other rinks also scoring at the same time the gap once again reduced to just a few shots.
Osborne Park then saved their best for the finish and across the board they all had good ends. Gary Caffell’s rink with some excellent leading from Ian Lilburne with Robbie Lawrence and youngster Connor Biddle who played extremely well started to get on top of the rink skippered by Scott Walker.
You can watch a replay of the Caffell v Walker game on the Bowls WA Facebook Page
Caffell himself played a match winner trailing the jack for a 4. Packer’s rink narrowed back the margin against Opie whilst Brown and Stevens again asserted their dominance. Suddenly with just 9 ends to play the margin was back to 13 shots and Osborne Park had their tails up and looking unstoppable at this stage. They eventually played out a 85-67 victory.
Presentations were made by Bowls WA President Larry Bandy with Andria Aird from Blooms The Chemist handing over the Pennant badges and flags to the winners.
