BALLARAT’S finals curse continues.
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The division one minor premiers are licking their wounds after slumping to yet another defeat in the Ballarat District Bowls Division playoffs.
Ballarat has now lost seven straight finals encounters since it broke into the top four in 2012.
There were high hopes heading into Saturday’s qualifying encounter with City Oval after a brilliant home-and-away camp-
aign, but Ballarat’s second-placed rivals proved too strong, winning by five shots to book a berth in the decider.
Ballarat chairman of selectors Brad Fothergill said it could have gone either way.
“It just came down to the last couple of ends; they picked five up, I think, with three or four ends to go, which gave them that bit of a break,” he said.
“Then we just couldn’t claw it back. We went out there, threw everything at them and just came up short.”
Fothergill admitted it was a “sombre” mood at the Ballarat rooms on Saturday night after all three finals teams went down during the day, but was confident the senior side could bounce back against Ballarat East next weekend.
“It’s back to the drawing board, regroup and come out all guns blazing next week,” he said.
City Oval’s 90-85 triumph came thanks to two rink wins and a tie on the Sebastopol grass.
Club selector and skipper Wayne Roberts said there had been a strong focus on playing out entire matches this season and believed that had helped his team get the result on Saturday.
“The game is not over until 100 ends are bowled, and that’s the attitude we have taken,” Roberts said. “A few we have lost we have tended to just drop off in the last few ends, so we really made that an emphasis to cover that.
“We will be working hard for the next couple of weeks and, hopefully, putting the same side on the park and hoping we can go one better than we did last year.”
Roberts said a fighting comeback by skipper Stan Meale and his side – which was down by 16 shots at one stage shortly after afternoon tea – to tie with Brett Forrest’s quartet was a massive part of the overall win.
Ballarat will meet Ballarat East in a preliminary final next weekend after the Two Blues kept their season alive with a 99-80 win over BMS in the elimination bout, also at Sebastopol.
Rink successes from skippers Luke Glasson, Zac Stewart and Chris McDonald got the job done for East.
Stewart said his team never really looked in danger of dropping Saturday’s clash and was looking forward to the return of Peter Wilson for the clash with Ballarat.
The former Ballarat bowler is aware of his opponents’ poor finals run, but said East would not rely on their rivals choking in an important fixture.
“We are always confident. We know that our best bowls,
we can beat anybody,” he said.
tim.oconnor@fairfaxmedia.com.au