State Champions Week 2022 – Bendigo East Bowling Club
State Champions Week 2022 kicked off on Saturday, April 30th.
Our representatives in the Women’s Fours – Donna Leeson, Jill Hopper, Helene Stenning and Debbie Gorin – were up against the highly fancied team from Yarra Region in the first game. After 7 ends, the Ballarat Highlands team were down 1 – 14, but won the next 6 ends to level the score at 14 all. They dropped 4 shots on the next 3 ends but with two ends to play, picked up a 2 and another 2 to level the scores at 18 all and force an extra end playoff. They drew two shots on that end to progress to the Quarter Finals.
The next match saw the ladies come up against the team from Melton representing Metro West Region. Again, they were down early but won 5 ends in a row for a lead of 11 – 9 after 11 ends. Scores were level at 15 all after 16 ends before Metro West picked up a 3 on the next end and Ballarat Highlands got 2 on the final end to go down by one shot overall.
Jill and Debbie also competed in the Women’s Pairs, unfortunately going down to Marie Russell and Sophia Jing 13 – 7 in the round of the final 16.
Craig Ford carried on his great form into the Men’s Singles finals. Craig had a comfortable win in his first game for the last 16, getting up 25 -15, picking up a couple of full counts to help him to progress to the Quarter finals.
In the quarter final, Craig came up against Geoff Lowe representing the Wimmera. While it looked like Craig was going to run away with the game early, Geoff fought back to make it an absolute nail-biter. Craig’s solid start secured an early lead of 16 – 9, only for Geoff to win 5 ends in a row to take the lead 18 – 16. From there, Craig asserted his grip on the match, picking up a 4 on the 25th end to be only one from moving in to the Semi Finals. However, Lowe had other plans and scrapped through, winning the next four ends to overcome Craig 25 – 24.
You can go back and watch the second half of the game via Bowls Victoria’s livestream on the back of the match between Ali Forsyth and Ian Brimblecombe. Skip to 1:28:00 when they shift the cameras on to Craig’s rink. Click here to view video.
It goes without saying that all at the Big V are extremely proud of the achievements of our hard-working and skillfull players.
All images: Bowls Victoria
