WEDNESDAY Lower South East Bowls Midweek Open Division 1 preliminary finals action saw the Mount Gambier Bowls Club Red side progress to the grand final after a win over Naracoorte RSL.
Played on the Mount Gambier RSL greens, the Reds went into the game confident after winning their only encounter with Naracoorte in Round 6.
The rink of Bill Bremner, Kym Jones, Jeff England and Gary Widdison bowled well to win 27-15 against the strong Lindy Mark skippered rink.
The stars of the day were the rink of Brian Francis, Ray Hutchesson, Daryl Raneberg and Steve Farrell who dominated their opponents for a 30-11 win to give the Reds a 57-26 victory and a grand final match-up against Port MacDonnell Red.
The Friday women’s Pennant grand finals were played at Kingston, where the Division 2 Mount Gambier team played Penola for the flag and a move up to Division 1 action next season.
The game on both rinks was tight early, with low scoring as both teams shared the ends.
The half time score was 28-26 in favour of Penola, with an exciting finish expected.
The experienced Penola team finished off the game well to win both rinks for a 49-37 victory.
The rink of Barb Butchart, Deanna Farrenfield, Kerry Pedlar and Beryl Versluis enjoyed a solid year but went down to Penola 15-20 in the grand.
The rink of Jan McCarthy Mavis Edgecumbe, Leanne Hentschke and Jane Calleja were good support to the other rink, with the improvement after the mid-season mark to provide the team every chance for premiership success.
However, Penola was too strong on the day to claim a 49-37 victory.
Saturday’s Open Pennant grand finals were also played at Kingston with the Division 1 Reds taking on cross-town rivals Mount Gambier RSL Red for their third grand final match-up in the last five years.
The friendly rivalry continued in an excellent game played in front of a large crowd.
The Reds rink of John Reppin, Tony Renzi, Greg Carpenter and Tony Bowditch continued their excellent form to jump their opponents with some heavy early scoring to lead 19-10 at the half-time break.
The Reds rink of Bill Bremner, Peter Radley, Brad Errock and Daniel Langdon started the game well to lead 6-0 but their opponents fought back to take a narrow 10-8 lead into the break.
The third match up was a close contest with the rink of Mick Ashby, Kristy Errock, Peter Reppin and Adam Wilson fighting to hold their opponents as they trailed 4-11 at the break. After the break the Bowditch rink continued on their way for a comfortable 33-21 victory but the 12-shot margin was not enough to cover the other two rinks who, despite some excellent bowling, each suffered eight-shot losses to narrowly lose the decider with the 64-60 result.
It was a disappointing result for the Reds after finishing the minor round on top.
Congratulations to Brad Errock who has shown great commitment in travelling, after Pennant games, to Adelaide to play an important role in the Heysen Comets qualifying for the SA Super League grand final.
After staring in the Reserves team, Errock was promoted to the League team where he played an important part in the Comets extra-end win on Sunday over the Mallee Pirates.
The Comets will now take on the highly-rated Central Charges in Sunday’s grand final.
