BENDIGO East has prevailed in an epic Bendigo Bowls Division preliminary final that came down to the final end to earn a crack at back-to-back premierships.
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Saturday’s clash between heavyweight Bendigo East and the emerging South Bendigo on Bendigo’s Yarrington green promised plenty and it delivered.
After 99 of the 100 ends, scores were locked together at 95-apiece, setting up a thrilling finale between the rinks of East coach Darren Burgess and South’s Ryan Tainton in which a berth in the grand final would be decided by the last 16 of the 1600 bowls sent down of the gripping contest.
On the final end South held shot early through second David White, before East’s Paul Vlaeminck snatched it back.
East then picked up another shot courtesy of third Brian Griffin’s second bowl, and when Burgess landed on the kitty with his first, the Beasties held three.
With the game on the line, Tainton with his final bowl attempted to kill the end, but was unsuccessful as the Beasties scraped over the line 98-95 in a game that finished just after 7pm to set up a grand final showdown against Bendigo for the third year in a row next Sunday.
Although his rink won the crucial final end, Burgess was beaten 25-21 by Tainton.
Two of Tainton’s shots came on the 99th end of the game to level the scores and set up the next score wins scenario on the final end.
While the Beasties are through to another grand final – their seventh in the past eight years – the loss ended a brilliant turnaround season for South, which had finished on the bottom of the ladder last year and hadn’t played finals since 1997.
South Bendigo fighting back to level the scores at 95-all going into the last end came after it had fallen 11 shots behind after 89 following East’s David Keenan picking up a six on his 23rd end against Greg Sherman to put the Beasties up 91-80.
But shortly after, the rink of South coach Brad Holland scored a five against Aaron Tomkins on their 23rd end to close the deficit back up.
A three on the final end gave Holland a 25-23 win over Tomkins.
After five losses in a row – the past four of which had been by four shots or less – the East rink of Marc Smith bounced back with a 28-22 victory over Liam Crapper, while Keenan defeated Sherman 26-23.
Preliminary final results:
Division 1
Bendigo East 14/98 d South Bendigo 4/95
A Tomkins 23 lt B Holland 25;
M Smith 28 d L Crapper 22;
D Keenan 26 d G Sherman 23;
D Burgess 21 lt R Tainton 25.
Division 2
Bendigo East v Eaglehawk – no results recieved
Division 3
White Hills 16/105 d Castlemaine 2/87
S O'Connor 22 d S McCoombe 19;
M Anderson 27 d M O'Shea 19;
P Brown 18 lt T Robinson 33;
S Arbuckle 38 d R Noble 16.
Division 4
Bendigo 16/95 d Strathfieldsaye 2/77
J Beecham 26 d J Sonego 15;
B Craig 17 lt B Jones 29;
J Trickey 26 d G Etherton 18;
J Cassidy 26 d T Probert 15.
Division 5
Calivil 16/95 d Marong 2/84
B Meighan 16 lt D Bird 33;
A Leech 26 d J Rathbone 17;
J Pickles 34 d S Knight 17;
W Miles 19 d N Tate 17.
Division 6
Harcourt 14/104 d South Bendigo 4/84
K Tribe 30 d R Clohesy 20;
D Gale 21 lt L Wilkinson 26;
B Buchanan 39 d B Mott 13;
R Douglas 14 lt K Presley 25.
Division 7
Marong 0/63 lt Lockwood South 16/85
D Penfold 25 lt B Ede 27;
B Williams 16 lt A Mallanack 27;
R Mills 22 lt A Archer 31.
Division 8
White Hills 1/35 lt Castlemaine 13/58
J Valentine 18 t K Carl 18;
R Franzi 17 lt M Walker 40 .
