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March 9, 2009
REPORT ON ‘ONE WHITE’ 2008 /9 PREVIEW - ROUND FOURTEEN


REVIEW ROUND 14

With some important matches scheduled for this round – there were a couple of surprising results – and for one or two clubs “hope springs eternal”. .

LEEMING 75 (6.5) V MORLEY 72 (1.5)

Our Leeming man reports as follows:

HEAR THE LION ROAR.........and roar they did yesterday after several close shaves with good sides at home, the Leeming boys toppled ladder leaders Morley, to keep their strides up and dignity intact with a hard fought victory and their first aggregate of the year. It had been touted many times that our struggling club “will win one soon” and finally we did to possibly gain some respect from the competition.

On a steaming hot afternoon where the Morley team seemed to misplace their UBD – the pre game meeting didn’t seem to help the boys from the north with The Lions jumping out to handy leads on three rinks.

With the green running at a handy 14.5 seconds the visiting team seemed to struggle to adapt early with Leeming doing their usual thing and pouncing early. With early chatter bouncing between rinks along with some misplaced bravado – Morley knew they were in for a game and a game they received, with a brilliant final bowl from novice skipper Dave Clayton sealing Morley’s fate and securing the Lion’s maiden win

In short....

• The usual dominance of the “Big Pom” was nullified by great early bowling from skipper Gary Ford along with a lack of luck. The three “young guns” up front for Leeming gave their skip just a bit more to work with overall in a tight game of bowls with Ford prevailing 20/14.

Leeming skip Gary Ford enjoying the first win of the season for the Leeming Lions
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• The high’s and lows of bowls were on display here with the Peter Morris led rink fresh off a very good win against Lester Mortimer last week, never in it in going down to the more consistent John Armstrong led team. They have had a great year and continued their form with a 25/12 victory.

• In a masterstroke from selectors, evergreen” granddad” Glendenning rose to the skippering occasion with great support bowls from Drimatis to cruise to a comfortable victory 24/14. Tommy has been around a while and his 177 years experience is invaluable to our young club.

• On the slow rink – it came down to a battle...newly promoted skip Dave Clayton versus the incredibly dominant Wayne Neilson who they say has only lost once in 6 years! Well, this rink decided the aggregate with magnificent skippering at the death, Leeming picked up the shots needed to win courtesy of a Clayton pearler to finish.

Well, when the dust settles and the hangovers are gone reality says we are still on the bottom of the ladder with a long way to go. What I do know is, it was a great team effort to beat top team Morley and we must build on that for next year. This might serve as a reminder to the competition that Leeming are still around and you take us lightly at your peril.

Good luck to the Morley boys for the rest of the year and hopefully we can steal another aggregate before the season finishes. Well done Lions!

Our Morley man indicated that the green was a little sticky and ran at around 13 seconds and he is generally a pretty good judge of pace.

Still a result is a result and whilst one feels for The Mavericks – you must feel good for the cellar dwellers recording their first win for the season.
Well Done to the Lions.

In a fortnight Leeming travel to Bedford and Morley host Mosman Park

WANNEROO 75 (6) V STIRLING 73 (2)

Two shots in the aggregate is a close encounter in any ones language and a win to the home side was a great reward for a good day on the paddock.

Mark Pasalich continued with his great season racking up a 9 shot win over recently promoted skip Mr. Knight. Tony Krajancic and his boys fell over the line with a 21/20 win over the Watson led rink.

That Left Echo Widermanski to play out another very tight one with Alan Erceg with the score board showing 17/16 at the 21st end.

The day belonged to Shagger Parmenter along with Gould, Gunning and Moyle who triumphed by 11 shots 24/13 over the Neville Stevens rink bringing home a 2 shot victory for The Roos.

This was a clash between ninth and second and another upset was recorded. The bottom line Stirling dropped a spot on the ladder and Wanneroo moved up a spot.

Has to be good for the competition – can Wanneroo string a few more wins together and extricate themselves from the relegation zone? Time will tell.

Wanneroo host Thornlie at their next outing and Stirling are at home to Osborne Park.

THORNLIE 59 (1) V MOSMAN PARK 78 (7)

Well Mossies came to play and play they did, taking home the greater share of what was on offer. The green was quick and may have been the home sides undoing – still one can’t take anything away from Mosman Park – they played hard and won.

Steve Withers and his rink demolished McKenzie’s boys in a big way with the result on this rink being rarely in doubt pretty much from the outset. Outdrawn and out driven most of the day, the Thornlie boys had no answer for the skill displayed by Steve and his charges with the final score being 29/11 and pretty much accounting for Mossies winning margin.

Glyn Vaughan again showed his class bringing home The Ravens only point for the day, recording an 18/12 win over Brad Ball. Bubbles has had a great year and his rinks strong showing week in and week out, has been a highlight for Thornlie club.

The other two matches were tight and competitive however they both went to the visitors with Rags Rainoldi finishing 17/13 over Ric Gilbert and Lester Mortimer recording a 20/17 win over Paul Pohe.

This win places Mossies back in second spot and has resulted in Thornlie dropping to fifth - which must herald some concerns for this club. Still with four rounds left to be played changes in ladder positions will probably keep on occurring.

The next outing for Thornlie is a trip to Wanneroo whilst Mosman Park travels to Morley for a top of the table clash.

OSBORNE PARK 89 (7) V MELVILLE 70 (1)

This was always going to be a tough one for Melville and history shows the result went pretty much as expected with the home side recording a solid win and fourth spot on the ladder for their trouble.

Whilst being competitive The Magic could manage just the one win which came courtesy of Nifty Brierley who finished 21/20 winners over the Edwards led rink.

However that was all she wrote for Melville and whilst the other rinks were competitive, all resulted in wins for the home team.

Keith Guelfi finished 10 shots the better over the Fewing’s led rink 24/14 – evergreen Rance Dewson was 20/16 over Steve Hughes and Young Duggie Eaton was a 25/19 winner over marvelous Mal Randall.

Have not had any feed back from either club however you could bet the greens were slippery and the home side would have taken every advantage from that – milking a seven shot win for their troubles.

Cliff Guelfi very interested in the outcome of this bowl in a recent game



Next outing Osborne Park play Stirling on the rug and Melville host Hilton Park a match that will be of great interest in the Relegation Stakes.

BEDFORD 92 (6) V HILTON PARK 77 (2)

This was an important clash for both clubs in terms of relegation as sixth played seventh, so with much to play for the game resulted as follows:

What a great year Cliff Graybrook is having – again showing his class in recording a 34/18 win over the usually very competitive Norm Ball. This rinks result was about the difference in the aggregate (I feel for you Norm – I know the feeling only too well).

The Bulls other good performer was Kevin Bourke giving Travis Simpson something to think about with a 21/13 result.

The other two matches both went the way of the visitors with Dan Slade (also having a great year) putting together a 27/23 win over Neil Watson’s rink whilst Chris McMahon got up 19/14 over Paul hunter in a reasonably tight affair.

The bottom line with this result has placed The Bulls some 5 points above seventh spot and left Hilton in seventh spot and in a little trouble. Still there is still time for both clubs to see change occur on the table – we will watch with interest.

Next outing Bedford host Leeming and Hilton visit Melville both vital games for the makeup of the bottom four.

SUMMARY

There was bound to be some sorry faces around on Sunday morning when the result of a few of Saturday’s matches had time to sink in.

Leeming win their first for the year – three points separate the top three sides so for them it is on in earnest – eight points separate ninth from sixth, so those clubs have plenty of reason to get very serious about the next four outings.

The fight for fourth spot is also an interesting one with just 5.5 points separating three clubs, all of whom could make the four.

Four rounds to go and much to play for – next Saturday there is no pennants so clubs have a week or so to get their plans in place for the run home.

Bring it on.

Tarah to all and enjoy your weekend off