Victoria third Noel Verlinden looks to draw shot against Central Wendouree.
AVENUE has taken an enormous step towards staying in Ballarat Geelong premier division bowls with a powerful clean sweep of fellow newcomer Highton on Saturday.
On a green running at 18 seconds, the Bacchus Marsh club ended its to date winless start to the season, claiming all four rinks and triumphing 110-80 against the Geelong region side.
It places Avenue seventh on the table, 21 points ahead of Central Wendouree in 10th.
Bill Hawken’s team doubled the score of Adam Lee’s for a 28-14 victory. Glen Sargent’s four was just as convincing with a 28-18 win over Graeme Wright, while Glenn Arthur and co got the points over Zane Lugg.
The one close rink battle went Darren Fletcher’s way 28-27 against Peter Hardy, allowing Avenue to snare all 18 points at Avenue.
“I knew we weren’t as bad as we played last weekend,” Fletcher said. “We went back to where a lot of players feel more comfortable and it all clicked.”
Victoria soared to the top of premier division on the back of a relatively close match with cross town rival Central Wendouree.
In a match where the largest individual rink win was just five shots, the Vics won three rinks to claim 16 points.
Jarrod Burt’s four enjoyed the most comfortable margin with a 29-24 triumph over Greg Brown’s team. The other results were all much closer, with Wes Lennecke up 22-20 against John Glenton and Barry Clark’s team home 19-17 against Eric Kosloff. John Nunn ensured the Bears did not go home empty handed with a 26-24 victory over Shaun Clark’s team.
“A couple of other sides got beat so that’s put us on top. Which is a nice place to be at this time of the year,” skipper Barry Clark said.
“They put us on the synthetic green out the back, which we thought they would. They need to win points and they would have thought they might have an advantage there. Central Wendouree is quite competitive on synthetic.
“At half-time we were seven shots down. With about 10 ends to go we were about 15 shots down and we clawed our way back. I don’t know how we won actually but we just plugged away.”
Webbcona scored an important away win against Lara, 97-86. With Ben McArthur (31-18) and Ash McArthur (20-18) up, and Brett Mahoney’s team tied with Robert Smith’s (24-24), Webbcona earned 15 points to remain within striking distance of the top four.
Sebastopol continued its better recent form with a 96-83 win against Geelong West at Sebastopol. The Kookaburras got the points in three of the four rinks, with Simon Cornock (22-13), Brad Oates (27-26) and Andrew Myers (26-21) the winning skippers.
Ocean Grove, meanwhile, reaffirmed its premiership credentials with a 100-79 victory over Bareena at Grove.