BRBA premier division: Leader board rocked

THE established order in Ballarat-Geelong premier division bowls has been rocked as upset results shook up the premiership table.Webbcona pulled off a successful raid into enemy territory on Saturday, defeating last season's finalist Sebastopol by 11 shots.Meanwhile, Avenue's fortress is proving as hard to crack for visiting premier division teams as it was for those in division one, the Bacchus Marsh side cruising to a 16-shot victory over Victoria.Webbcona and Sebastopol split their rinks two apiece on the Sebastopol grass.However a crushing 32-10 victory by Tony Wood's four over Jess Thomas's team proved the difference in an otherwise tight encounter."It is an excellent result. If we can get up against a team like Sebastopol it builds our confidence," Webbcona chairman of selectors Brett Mahoney said. "In Tony Wood's rink all four blokes bowled very well." The green-and-whites were behind at the tea break, trailing the Burra by one shot.At that point, Scott Roberts' team held a 21-1 lead for Sebastopol over Ben McArthur and company. McArthur's team's fightback was as pivotal to the final result as Wood's dominance, going down 27-20."If you have a rink well down, it doesn't look good, but if you can fight back it can make a big difference even if you go down," Mahoney said. Rob Baker's four defeated Rod Brehaut 25-14 for Sebastopol, while Adam Kinniburgh pulled one back for Webbcona, beating Ian Warner 27-20.After 100 ends nothing could separate Central Wendouree and Highton on shots, the two sides locked on 93 apiece.It was Central Wendouree that came away with the lion's share of the premiership points, however, the Bears won three rinks to take home 11 points to Highton's seven.For Centrals, Tim Wright defeated Craig Hodge 22-18, Greg Brown beat Craig Elliot 22-19, and Col Wright took the points from Zane Lugg 32-15.Balancing the ledger in the other direction, Col Hinderberg thrashed Bill Durand's team 41-17."We were terrible," Durand admitted."It was one of those days where everything we did went wrong, and everything they did went right."Victoria has become the second team this season to come up short on Avenue's synthetic greens. The Bacchus Marsh side was triumphant 117-85. Avenue collected 16 points overall, with three rinks up, Simon Cornock's team ahead 31-25 against Shaun Clark, Rod Keith defeating Wes Lennecke 34-18 and William Hawken up 31-15 against Craig Ford.For Victoria, Barry Clark and co. defeated Darren Fletcher 27-21. Queenscliff predictably proved too strong for Ocean Grove, winning three rinks on the way to a 97-70 result.Barry Close's team was standout, defeating Ken Thomas 34-12.In the Geelong derby, Bareena put Geelong West to the sword 119-64 at home. Travis Kelly's rink was dominant, winning 38-10.