A PRELIMINARY note - as the season approached, offers made by clubs to move sides from their early nominations to get rid of all byes was greatly appreciated by the competitions committee and clubs in general.

The start of Saturday pennant had some good score totals, one extra good one at team level.

Division 1 had its highest side score at 79 and the average winning margin was 22. 

Two home sides enjoyed the spoils during the opening round.

RSL Memorial had a stiff start, defeated by the Portland visitors, 48-70.

D. Pitts 16 lost to J. Rappard 23, G. Hoggan 21 d. B. Bowden 18 and K. Evans 11 lost to P. Cottier 29. 

Penshurst hosted Balmoral and the only appreciation shown was the welcome, comradery on the green and social activities.

The scores favoured last season’s premiers by 26 shots.

Penshurst 43 lost to Balmoral 69 – T. Landwehr 9 lost to T. Simons 25, D. Cook 19 drew with N. Trotman 19, M. Ross 15 lost to P. Merryfull 25.

Hamilton set up on A green for Grangeburn to visit, and ended up winning on all rinks with B. Satchell 31, the highest team score of Division 1, defeating K. Prewett 17, N. Pech 19 d. T. Partington 17, and R. Martin 29 d. R. Thomassen 10.

Hamilton 79 to Grangeburn 44 - The third game was the close one with Heywood at home, scoring 59 to Casterton 56.

J. Angelino 26 d. A. Alderton 14, Angelino 15 lost to G. Russell 25, M. Swan 18 d. N. Shannon 17.

After one game, Hamilton is on top of the ladder with Balmoral and Portland close behind.

Division 2

THE next division is where all the colour is.

Portland has blue and gold names, while Hamilton has gold and green.

They will be playing each other more than twice in this division, as there are only six sides. 

Macarthur 61 d. Hamilton Green 54 – J. Schroeder 17 lost to J. Brody 22, A. Bourke 15 lost to D. Gay 21 and C. Tonissen 29 d. M. Spiller 11. 

Portland Blue had a toughish start at home when Hamilton Gold turned up.

T. Alexander 21 d. A. Crane 19, G. Millich 16 lost to M. Jolly 32, the highest division two team score, and R. Alexander did everything to keep T. Schultz to a 17-17 draw, leading to a Portland Blue 54 to Hamilton Gold 68 result.

Memorial 51 lost to Portland Gold 77 – G. Watt 21 d. R. Speers 20, L. Buchanan 12 lost to L. Shelton 26, P. Fasoli 18 lost to T. Hogan 31. 

So early on, Portland Gold has top rung with Hamilton Gold one point behind.

Division 3

THIS division has an even bigger merry go round as there are only four sides to play out 14 rounds.

This week, Hamilton hosted Coleraine and they played the closest of all games with the home side scoring, 56-55.

R. Fary 17 d. S. Cooper 16, P. Anson 22 d. B. Armstrong 19, B. Edge 17 lost to A. Templeton 20. 

Grangeburn who finished on the bottom rung last season came back with a vengeance, scoring 98 shots and having 51 as the top team score.

F. Hardy 23 d. M. Fredericks 10, J. Colcott 24 d. I. Tinkumsep 9, N. Ryan 51 d. D. Garnier 7.

Division 4

THE biggest division with 10 teams, saw Hamilton Green 29 lose to Heywood 39.

H. McIntyre 16 lost to J. Hamblin 18, A. Smith 13 lost to T. Hoggan 21.

Coleraine 51 d. Grangeburn 42 – R. Salamon 22 lost to P. Thomassen 29, A. Guy 29 d. P. Moore 13.

Dartmoor 69 d. Penshurst 31 – P. Holmes 37 d. I. McLean 10, R. Kerr 32 d. T. Williams 21

Hamilton Gold 39 d. Macarthur 35 – M. Tonissen 11 lost to C. Dunn 20, K. Buck 28 d. J. Cowland 15.

Casterton had to forfeit to Balmoral, so the Balmoral side received all points ie 14 plus 15 shots and Casterton lost 15 shots. 

Other news

AT Grangeburn on Sunday, the men’s section two bowl triples sectional games were played.

Three games of 15 ends and as expected, most games were of high standard.

The four section winners were a composite team skipped by N. Trotman in section three, P. Merryfull won section four, J. Wallis won section two and P. Graham won section one.

The knockout will be played at Hamilton on Sunday and in these games 18 ends are contested.

At the same time the two finalists of the mixed pairs will also be played at Hamilton. The final was postponed due to bad weather back in September. G Hoggan and K Overall will play a composite pair of M Swan and N Tinning. For non-bowlers a composite team is one where members of more than one club play together.