A crowd of over 1,000 vocal spectators took in the excitement and drama of the Bowls Central Coast Pennant finals played across seven grades at Ettalong Memorial Bowling Club on Saturday, May 31, with a strong presence from teams representing Gosford LGA.
In Grade 1 Ettalong Memorial started outright favourites but they didn’t have it all their own way against a highly competitive Avoca Beach who, with just five ends remaining, looked as if they could cause the upset of the series. But Ettalong steadied over the closing ends to secure telling rink wins by Aron Sherriff (20-14) and Lee Trethowan (22-14) with John Roberts recording an 18 all draw against Tony Shoebridge for a conclusive 60-46 victory and the club’s second consecutive No 1 Pennant flag.
Ettalong went through the season undefeated with Aron Sherriff’s rink winning all its games. Grade 2 was an intense struggle between Wyong and Gosford City with only a few shots separating both sides on the master scoreboard throughout the game. Although Gosford City recorded strong rink wins by Guy Robins (22-14) and George Clark (20-17) it wasn’t enough to offset a match winning margin by Wyong’s Bill King (27-13) over Selvarajan. The final result on the master scoreboard was 58- 55 win to Wyong.
Grade 3 was expected to be a tight tussle between Breakers and Munmorah United with both sides recording a win against each other in the sectional rounds, but Breakers jumped out of the blocks to lead all the way for a 69-40 clean sweep across all rinks. Bob Rowe (26-12) and David Brien (26-13) had convincing wins while Wayne Hensley topped off a strong team performance with a (17-15) win over Daryl Walton.
Grade 4 produced the closest contest of the afternoon between Davistown RSL and Halekulani which was a nail biter right down to the last bowl. Davistown’s David Taylor (19-15) and Dick Love (21- 11) offset Laurie Barrett’s struggle (12-25) to record a one shot victory (52-51) on the master score board. Davistown trailed going into the last end and looked in trouble until veteran skip Dick Love played a match winner to snare victory. Grade 5 was a round robin final between Woy Woy and The Entrance, with Diggers maintaining their unbeaten record with a convincing two rink to one over Woy Woy.
Brendan Poidevin (29-12) and Les Morrison (19-16) offset Neil Dell’s loss (22-27) to Woy Woy’s Ken Young for a convincing (70-55) victory. Grade 6 saw Bateau Bay record wins on all three rinks with Ray Peck (18-16), Tony Hegyi (23-13) and Ken Studdert (23-18) combining to record a strong (64- 47) victory over the highly fancied Ettalong side.
Grade 7 was a tight contest with Halekulani (2’s) gaining the upper hand over Everglades with good wins by Paul McDonnell (25-17) and John Rayner (30-21) offsetting Gary Graham’s loss to Tom Cain (15-22) to gain outright honours (70- 60). The respective winners will now progress to the State Pennant Final Series to be played from August 9 to 11.
Media release, 2 Jun 2014
Kevin Dring,
Bowls Central Coast