THE top of the leader board Victoria was not the favourite going into round six of Ballarat Geelong premier division bowls match against number two side Ocean Grove, but pulled together and came out ahead.
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The side was down five key bowlers, with Shaun and Barry Clark, Brian Ball and Wayne Lynch and Steven Britt all unavailable, but managed a win nine shots up at Ocean Grove, 75 to 84.
Victoria secretary and premier division bowler Noel Verlinden said the talk on the bus going down was definitely that everyone had to carry their weight and make every shot count.
“We were depleted in numbers, with five out of our normal side,” Verlinden said.
“It was an across the board team effort – everybody contributed. We all worked together really and and it worked.”
At afternoon tea, Victoria was up by 19 shots.
Ocean Grove worked hard to close the gap, getting as close as three shots down before Victoria pulled away to win by nine shots.
“Jarrad Burt’s rink did exceptionally well, finishing 18-33 against Craig Hodges’ rink. That was the backbone of our win,” Verlinden said.
The score board constantly swung one or two shots either way.
Craig Ford’s rink was able to move into the lead when needed, finishing 18-19 against the Australian bowler’s team.
Wes Lennecke’s team went down 20 to 17 and Jesse Thomas, who filled in as a skipper, went down 19 to 15.
Victoria wasn’t the only Ballarat side that tasted victory at the weekend.
Sebastopol won in all four rinks against Highton, finishing 23 shots up 112 to 89. Ian Warner’s rink rolled Zane Lugg’s rink 28 to 19, the strongest win of Sebastopol’s teams.
Central Wendouree wasn’t able to pick itself up off the bottom of the ladder position, with Avenue taking the win in all four rinks, finishing 106 to 76.
Webbcona rolled Bareena in three rinks at Webbcona, finishing 110 to 83. Tony Wood’s rink finished one shot up in a tight battle against Daniel Priddle, 27 to 26.
Geelong West played Lara, where the rinks split – Geelong West finished 22 shots up 98 to 76. Craig Elliot’s rink carried the win against Rob Smith, 37 to nine.
LADDER
VICTORIA 88 points, 1.31 per cent; SEBASTOPOL 77, 1.02; OCEAN GROVE 72, 1.21; WEBBCONA 65, 1.09; Geelong West 64, 1.09; Bareena 58, 0.09; Avenue 43, 0.86; Lara 28, 0.86; Highton 25, 0.83; Central Wendouree 20, 0.81.
