THE Portland Memorial Bowls Club set a new record for Far Western Bowls history.

All five sides which entered into the pennant season made it to the finals and four of those five sides finished with premierships. 

All games were very close in overall scores displaying the great standard of all games. 

The winning margins were nine, four and two three-shot wins.

In fabulous conditions at venues, Penshurst and Macarthur greens were well prepared and with great hospitality, as play got underway with the traditional roll up at 1.15pm and the official start 15 minutes later.

Division 1

THE top division was at Penshurst Memorial took on Portland and after the first three ends on each rink, the scores were Memorial trailing, 1-13 to Portland.

Wow how is this going to go? Well, the high standard continued, but the Memorial teams edged their way back into the contest.

By end 21, the main scoreboard totals were Memorial 16 and Portland 18.

Kel Wiffen drew Lindsay Gruar and the scores were 5-5 at a third of the way, Clayton Holcombe v Tony Hogan was 4-7, and Graeme Solly led 7-6 against Peter Cottier.

At the break taken at end 36, the totals were 38 to 32, and the bigger score was partly due to a five on the last end before the rest period.

Then the battle continued, no caffeine or carb influence here, as Memorial won 13 of the remaining ends and Portland 14.

The difference was that Memorial was able to gather three more shots than Portland, and the final scores were Memorial 62 to Portland 53.

For the record, Solly with Chris Fleming, Chris Bramley and Chris Elford defeated Cottier’s team including Mick Jennings, Richard Speers and Ken Fisher, 24 to 14.

Holcombe with G. Seary, Ken Evans and Kim Overall defeated Hogan, Leigh Hoffman, Keith Meerbach and Dianne Huppatz, 22 to 15.

Wiffen, John Wallis, Dean Beckman and Ian Grayson lost to Gruar, John Barker, Barry Huppatz and John Pye, 16 to 24.

Memorial now proceeds to the Region playoff on March 28.

Division two

ALL eyes were on players at the same venue for a division two decider which was even more nail biting than the division one game.

Scores a third of the way were Memorial 12 and Portland 11, and at the break was 24 to 23, before the scores were 24-28 two thirds of the way through the day.

Memorial’s Ted Leahy‘s team score went from eight to 19 after the break and Alan Warburton from 15 to 21, so it was a deficit of two to Leahy’s team.

On the adjacent rink, Gerry Watt was playing Andy Smail and here the scores went from 16 to 12 at end 14 to 23 to 18 at the finish. 

Watt, Bob McIntyre, Marion Husson and Terry Stanley defeated Smail, Lionel Shelton, Peter King and Julie Fisher, while Leahy, Des Pitts, Trevor Wynniat and Jason Dean were defeated by Warburton, Maca McGowan, Ken Place and Barry Clay as above, 19 to 21.

All the figures add up to a three-shot win to Memorial.

Division three

THE division three grand final was at Macarthur and it was another battle to the last end.

The team on the first rink representing Memorial, Peter Fasoli as skipper, Rod Beauglehole, Rob Liddle, and Peter Pevitt playing Dartmoor’s Ross Kerr, Ian Brown, Drew McMillan and Phil Jones.

The result went to the Memorial team by nine shots.

The second game between Kevin Husson, Jim Bryden, Huon Beauglehole and Martin McKeever versus Peter Holmes, Neil Murrell, Tony Paris and Ray Cusson was won by the Dartmoor combo, but being 20 to 25, the Memorial side took the honours for the day.

On the main scoreboard, it was Memorial 43 to Dartmoor 39.

Division four

MACARTHUR hosted Memorial Blue and Hamilton Gold in the final, and the two previous match-ups were split with a win and loss each.

This was another extremely close result, as Rob Hamblin, June Leahy, Terry Barclay and Ian Merrett 15 defeated Jim Nichol, Marg Graham, Ron McDonald and Rhonda Dunbar 11.

The second set of results has Jan Hamblin, Wayne England, Jack Rees and Lockie Aitchison with 17 to Barry Dowling, Peter Clapham Glenda Hawker and Ken Dunbar 18, meaning totals were 32 to 29.

The grapevine leaked that the Dowling team led 16-1 at the break, but that’s the way bowls can go.

All in all, it was a great Saturday pennant season; thanks to the clubs who hosted finals and well done to all finalists, win or lose.