December 13, 2007
Round seven brings us an exciting weekend of bowls with plenty at stake for most clubs
Victoria Park Reds play the Cambridge Knights in a game that the winner can further consolidate their place in the top four
Sth Perth Millers have lifted themselves off the bottom of the ladder with some solid performances and will play Bedford in a game that might well determine their place on the big stage, a win is so important here for the Millers to break away from the relegation zone.
For Bedford it is equally important and could be one of their last chances to stay in contention for a place in the Premier League next season
The PowerHouse take on the Cockburn Roosters in a game that Cockburn will provide answers to many questions about their status as a power in the Premier League.
The PowerHouse were shock losers last week will want to keep hold of top place will find playing a home more to their liking
Osborne Park Saints play Kalamunda at Osborne Park, This is very important game for both clubs, The Saints will want to build on their excellent performance against Wanneroo, while Kalamunda have to get some big end points to stay within striking distance of the the top four while a loss will see relegation is still not out of the question for them
Melville Magic play the Wanneroo Express at home. Wanneroo are not out of the reckoning just yet and 8 points is a must for the Express. The Magic have gained credibility in their last home game performance, will be looking to carry on with another good showing.
-----John Goddard Osborne Pk, fine delivery
John Goddard is in great form winning the AllStars fours and R/U in the Sorrento Master Singles
-----------ROUND SEVEN 15th DECEMBER
----------------GAME OF THE ROUND
----- VIC PARK REDS v CAMBRIDGE KNIGHTS
G. Wishart(sk), T. Mitchell, D. Florence , G. Hiskens
R. Hughes (sk), R. Gilbert, J. Finlay, G. Quann
R. Butler (sk), K. Beaglehole, S.Knott.G. Faulkner
J. Mitchell (sk), C. McNeil, S. Holt, D. Patterson
-------------------------versus
T.Smallacombe (sk) N. Lewis,W. Maher, B. Kiely
The Jones Boy (sk) T. Walsh, A. Heal, R. Bolton
R. Stockton (sk) C. Lander, G. Kane, H. Christensen
B. Katunarich (sk) M. McGann,C. McKenna,D.Irvin
Victoria Park will look forward to this game with good reason. The Reds have done as well as any club and are sitting in fourth place with several important wins and not to forget they pushed the Powerhouse all the way at Doubleview.
Russell Hughes has been off the winners list since he lost his third. Jeff Mitchell has come back to the field losing his last 2 games while Rooster has won his last two games with a completely revamped rink. Rhett Butler and his rink are doing it well with 4 wins from 6 games
The Reds battle plan will be to stop the rinks of Trystan Smallacombe and the Jones boy. Do that and they will on the way to victory.
Do they have any rinks that are capable of achieving that ? stat sheet says yes.
Cambridge had a great day against the Powerhouse and were the first club to roll them this season will need to have ALL rinks ready to play this week
The rinks of Ron Stockton has been good for the Knights over the last month while Brian Katunarich's rink showed plenty of grit in a vastly improved display in their narrow loss to Robbie Ball last week.
The stage is set for a fantastic contest between these heavyweight contenders
6/2
D/VIEW POWERHOUSE v COCKBURN ROOSTERS
J. Slavich(sk) K. McIroy,R. Dempsey,J.Wholohan
D.Katunarich(sk),P. Buller,B.Gearing, C.Dunstall
J. Sharp (sk),L. Thorn, R. Barns, M. Mitchell
R. Ball(sk), B. Urquhart, J. Bausor, C. Slavich
-----------------------Versus
S. Srhoy(sk),D. Penman, I. Jakovich,N.Fitzgerald
D. Brown(sk) L. Richardson,M. Zusman, P. Novak
L. Strahan(sk) S.Cerff, M. Illich, J. Galipo
M. Kurta(sk), G. Carberry, M. Sokol, J. Ravilich
The PowerHouse were Dumped, bumped, battered and bruised after last week in dismal performance for a side that has the strongest group of 16 players in the Premier League.
One thing is for sure and that is we will see a different PowerHouse this week. Playing at home and on their very good grass they will really give this game the works.
If my info is correct it was unreal to see Dennis Katunarich lead 12/11 then lose the game 28/14.
The rink of Jon Sharp got across the line by 2 shots and the record shows he usually wins the tight ones.
Robbie Ball has not lost a game in the four he has played this season, three of those as skip.
The big question in this game for the Cockburn Roosters is can they get switched on and if they do come switched on will they be good enough, plenty of reasons to be switched on for the Roosters, however they haven't has all hands on deck this season yet they are in third place due to the efforts of the Matt Kurta and Lance Strahan led rinks. Both rinks have lost only one game each this season.
This is the challenge they have to have, Cockburn up to this stage of the season, while they have the runs on the board but still don't seem to be the Cockburn of old. They are trying to plug holes in the side to get the balance right and it is the best time of the season to be doing it.
Their last two games have been against bottom of the ladder teams where we see Melville nearly got them and the Bedford contest which we can't take a lot of notice of.
The PowerHouse won't lose any sleep over last week's loss and will be a different side this week
Jon Sharp and Robbie Ball were the only winners but we could expect Dennis Katunarich who has lost only one game for the season to be as hard to beat as usual and John Slavich has a power packed rink that will be keen to rectify last weeks effort.
6/2
-----WANNEROO EXPRESS v MELVILLE MAGIC
C. Adams (sk) N.Stevens, G.Cox, P.Potts
G. Ellis (sk), R. Humphreyson, P. Knight,S.Wright
Ron Bates(sk), J.Carter, S. Alden, Russ Bates.
S.Davies(sk), T.Alden,M.Hulbert,D Griffin
-----------------------Versus
C. Girvan
C. Fleay
S. Hughes
N. Briely
---------------------SIMON ALDEN
-------------------
Simon Alden makes his first appearance for the Express on Saturday against Melville
There have been a couple of changes in the Express side. Wayne Heldt was dropped to the One Blue side and Neville Stevens was replaced by Ron Bates who will skipper in his place while Neville will replace Wayne Heldt as Clive Adams third.
Simon Alden makes his first appearance for the season coming up from Doug Watson's successful One Blue rink.
The Wanneroo Express have been the hardest to follow so far this season. They have beaten Cambridge, Cockburn and Vic Park, these sides are above Wannerroo on the ladder at the moment.
They have lost to Doubleview, Osborne Park and Sth Perth. It is rare to see a side with only 9.5 rink wins after 6 games have been played, and three rinks that have a combined shots against of - 65 and be only 8 points out of the four.
They have yet to play bottom sides Melville, Bedford and Kalamunda. Wanneroo normally would pencil in a win for these games.
The Express are so inconsistent this season it is hard to know where they are at.
Rinks that look great on paper are getting smashed and with these losses are losing valuable ground to make the finals.
The Express must win this game . It will give the club a chance to regroup and be ready for the second round.
Melville will be having a crack in this game and we are waiting to see if their last home ground performance against Cockburn was a one off, are they on track to be far more competitive unit fromhere on
Melville Magic have the home ground advantage and would be fed up to go this far into the season without a win. The Hughes and Girvan led rinks have been very competitive and look to be the best chance of forcing a victory for them
I was going to select the Magic but on seeing changes made by the Express it could be the spark to bring the best out of the them
7/1
---BEDFORD BULLS v Sth PERTH MILLERS
C. Graybrook(sk) J. Gupanis , P. Healy, N. Watson
S. Bainbridge(sk)B. Fullagar, B. Radford, K. Burke
Paul. Hunter (sk),N. Minchin , D. Scott, P. Hunter.
B. Gartrell (sk) K. Thomas,B. Donovan, P. Turpin
----------------------versus
----------------
K. Pride (sk), Max Petrich Troy Kinnane ,Vic Yates
R. Bresland(sk),F. Carbone, D Bandy J Cunningham
Nic Reagan (sk) S. Lunn, T. Percival M.Hughes
Scott Walker(sk) B. Bandy,Reg Neindorf, D. Stewart
The Bulls have not won a point in their last two games have made significant changes to their 16.
Barry Gartrell makes a welcome return to the side after finding his feet in One Blue for the last two weeks along with a new recruit, Kevin Thomas from Lancelin. Kevin applied for the 5 game rule to transfer from Osborne Pk to come to Bedford.
Both players have been in very good touch Particularly Barry Gartrell. The inclusion of these two players should give the Bulls some extra bite along with Bob Donovan who will return to the second's spot and Peter Turpin who made a very good debut in his first game for the Bulls last week against Cockburn
Bruce Fullagar lost his rink which has been broken up and will play three for Stu Bainbridge. The regular three in Stuarts rink Steve Rushforth in unavailable for this game
This is a big chance for Bedford to hang in there and keep up with the other sides that are in the demotion zone.
The Sth Perth Millers have been up and about and have a great home ground record on their carpet.
The big question is can they win this away game and will they be able to handle the tricky Bedford carpet or will Bedford play the game on grass?
In their two away games which were on grass the Millers lost them both.
All Miller rinks represent danger to the Bulls and will be looking to win their first game away from home. Can they do it ?
6/2
-------OSBORNE PK SAINTS v KALAMUNDA
G. Caffell (sk), D. Rankin, P. Ker, J. Coleman.
B. Galloway(sk) G. Evans, G. Nicol, F. DiGuiseppe
D. Trewhella (sk), P. Caffell, D. Guelfi, D. Adams.
J. Goddard (sk), I., Payne, G. King, D. Appleton.
------------------------versus
N. Payne (sk) S. O`Neil, R. Hutchison, R Pringle
B. Brandsma (sk), J. Rollnik, T. Nattalotto R.Payne
N. Griffin (sk)B. Tie, M. Clancy, P. Nattalotto
M. Biglin (sk) F. Anderson, J. Wardrop, M. Douthie
Osborne Pk Saints are back to winning form with the rink of John Goddard in great touch last week against Clive Adams while Daniel Trewhella would be taking a lot of satisfaction with his two big wins and having two new young players in Daniel Adam and Daniel Guelfi performing so well in their first two games for the Saints.
Bill Galloway is down on the stat sheet but history has told us not to under rate this rink, when the pressure is on, this rink they can get the job done.
Gary Caffell had another loss last week and now has a - 4 shots aggr. Last season Gary had lost only 4 games for the last home and away season.
Kalamunda were an little disappointing in their game against the Vic Park Reds. Two rinks that have the ability were beaten last week.
You can never write off Billy Brandsma and the leading Kalamunda rink of Mitch Biglin. Farley Anderson is a great competitor and no doubt is playing his part in the rinks success so far as is Mark Clancy and Mick Douthie.
Have Kalamunda got the will and the skill to defeat The Saints? I don't think so.
7/1
