LAWN BOWLS –
Bateau Bay Bowling Club have found themselves preparing for two Central Coast wide (Zone 15) Grand Finals in the 2021 Fours Championship, in both the Opens division and the Seniors.
Many games of Bowls were played over the weekend of January 30 – 31 across the Opens, Seniors and President’s Reserves at Avoca Beach, Ettalong and Gosford City Bowling Clubs, despite games in the President’s Reserves being postponed due to wet weather conditions.
In the Opens, Bateau Bay had 3 out of 4 teams playing off in the Section One semi-finals at Ettalong, with two of them reaching the finals, where P. McCarton, J. Watson, C. Edwards and R. Rewco won over G. Coleman, M. Burnes, R. Wood and W. Power.
Section Two also included some very strong teams, with several zone 15 representative players playing at Gosford City.
These included John Roberts’ side from Ettalong, Mark Wheatley’s side from Halekulani, Dick Thornton’s side from The Entrance, Sean Love’s side from Davistown, Ron Spek’s side from Munmorah, Dave Neilson’s side from Bateau Bay and Lee Patterson’s side from Ettalong.
After some sensational games, it was the team led by Ron Spek that played the Lee Patterson led side in the Section Two final.
After a very tight game, Lee’s team won by 18 – 14 and will now play the Bateau Bay winners of Section One in the Fours Grand Final.
The Seniors division involved some tremendous match ups as well, with all the games being played at Avoca Beach Bowling Club.
The Section One final came down to the Bateau Bay team led by Tony Shoebridge and Philip Westcott’s team from Ettalong.
The two teams went into this final with a healthy rivalry already running between them, with Westcott’s 2019 Fours Championship team losing to Shoebridge’s team, who at the time played for Terrigal Bowling Club, the next year in 2020.
Both these teams had been favourites for winning the overall Championship this year before being drawn in the same section, therefore everyone knew that they were in for a great game to watch and worthy of a Grand Final.
However, the Tony Shoebridge led side played the cold wet conditions better than the Phil Westcott led side and won by a comfortable 22 – 8 margin.
Section 2 also had some great teams including the Neil Dell side from Mingara, Chris Epple’s side from Avoca, Peter Hamill’s side from Toukley and Tony Swaine’s side from Terrigal.
The Tony Swaine led side beat the Chris Epple led side in the section 2 final 22 – 13.
Due to this, Shoebridge’s ex-Terrigal side will now face up against their old club and four new Terrigal bowlers who will seek to take the trophy from the reigning champion bowlers and keep it safely in the possession of the reigning champion club.
This Grand Final, along with that of the Opens and Presidents Reserve, will all be hosted by Ettalong Bowling Club, from 1:00 pm on Sunday, February 7.
Source:
Peter Springett, Bowls Central Coast