Webbcona edged past City of Geelong by the skin of its teeth on Saturday to clinch an important victory for its finals chances.
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The 89-88 success leaves Webbcona third on the Ballarat-Geelong premier bowls ladder and helps maintain a healthy gap on the teams outside the top four.
Saturday’s triumph was the perfect way to resume the 2016-17 season for the Webbcona outfit, which greeted the Christmas-New Year break with defeat at the hands of Lara in mid-December.
Rink wins to skippers Aaron Wood and Ben McArthur were pivotal in a successful road trip on the weekend.
Wood won his contest by three shots, but it was McArthur’s 13-shot margin in the battle with City of Geelong skipper Zane Lugg that was most telling.
The home team secured eight-shot and seven-shot rink victories, however, it was not enough to land just its third triumph of the campaign.
Webbcona skipper Brett Mahoney said scores were tied heading into the last end on Saturday afternoon, where his quartet managed to secure a shot to seal the 10 points. Mahoney’s lead Chris Steenhuis was the hero, with one of his early bowls proving the match-winner. City of Geelong’s Craig Elliott was unable to oust the shot bowl with his final attack of the day.
“We seem to be able to win the tight ones,” Mahoney said.
We seem to be able to win the tight ones.
- Webbcona skipper Brett Mahoney
“Other years, the tight ones haven’t gone our way, but we proved it this year with the tight games we have managed to come through with a victory and that’s very important.”
City of Geelong remains ninth on the table – and in the relegation zone – 22 points clear of bottom team Buninyong, but 21 behind eighth-placed City Oval.
Looking ahead to the upcoming matches and there’s a tough few weeks in store for the Webbcona side.
It has clashes with Ocean Grove and Sebastopol across the next two weekends before an encounter with Queenscliff.
The Grovers charged to the summit after prevailing in the top-of-the-table battle against Sebastopol on Saturday.
They won three of the four rinks in a commanding 110-83 win on home soil.
This helped turn a 12-point deficit into a two-point lead in first position on the table.
Bareena jumped into the finals bracket on the back of the weekend’s 103-74 success against Buninyong.
The Geelong-based team collected three rinks to leapfrog Queenscliff into fourth spot.
The Cliffers relinquished their place on the back of a 113-75 defeat to Victoria.
Saturday’s other encounter saw Lara play its way to victory in the clash with City Oval, winning the game by 20 shots.