IT WAS a dark day for Ballarat’s premier division sides on Saturday.
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All five teams from the Ballarat District Bowls Division suffered losses as their Geelong rivals triumphed, signalling a tough start to the season.
After two rounds, only Sebastopol and Victoria have recorded wins, with the Ballarat sides filling the bottom five spots on the premier division ladder.
Sebastopol came the closest to recording a win on Saturday, losing to Lara by just three shots.
Elsewhere, however, it was a bleak day across the board.
Victoria lost the only game on Ballarat soil for the weekend to Ocean Grove, Webbcona lost all four rinks in a 42-shot drubbing at the hands of Geelong West, Central Wendouree was easily disposed of by Bareena, and Avenue lost by a whopping 46 shots against Queenscliff.
Sebastopol’s loss was easily the most devastating, throwing away an eight-shot lead with just three ends to go.
For the majority of the match it seemed like Sebastopol would make it back-to-back wins to start the season after holding a comfortable buffer for most of the day.
However, when two rinks dropped five shots in the last end and another dropped one, the victory suddenly went to Lara.
“The whole side was pretty gutted because we thought we had their measure for most of the day,” bowls administrator Rob Baker said.
“We just needed to hold on for one more end each but couldn’t do it.”