Metro Pennant Wrap
Close finish in Premier League Another great season of The Professional’s Men’s Saturday Pennants came to a close with two days of bumper finals day action across multiple venues on Saturday the 2nd April and Sunday the 3rd April. Congratulations to all those that made it to finals and to the winners of the Pennant.
Premier League The Professionals Men’s Premier League came to its ultimate conclusion on a warm and humid day at Yokine Bowling Club, Sunday 3rd April. The season had been a very interesting one with Doubleview, Cambridge and South Perth all sitting at the top of the ladder through out the year but ultimately it would be Manning who would steal the show in the finals defeating all three to claim their third title in the last eight seasons. Doubleview Bowling Club hosted the opening finals rounds on the Saturday after defeating Cambridge in the last home and away round, and they would have been bitterly disappointed to end the season with consecutive defeats to South Perth and Manning on their home track. South Perth accounted for them in the morning match comfortably 89-67 whilst at the same time Manning eked out a narrow 6 shot win over Cambridge. With the winner to face South Perth in the grand final Manning proved too good for Doubleview 86-62 to go into the grand final with plenty of confidence. South Perth who had tasted defeat in grand finals on a number of occasions would have been hoping this was going to be the day they would break through for another flag having last won the title in 1970/71 however right from the start it was Manning who played the better bowls on the day. The rink of Trewhella, Butler, Ker and O’Brien burst out the blocks scoring multiples on several ends to quickly lead the Pauling rink by double digits and with the other Manning teams all playing strongly Manning had built a 38 shot lead approaching the half way mark of the contest. To the credit of South Perth they then lifted, the rink of Brown, Such, Antonio and Galipo who had earlier dropped a 6 to the Knott team of Jones, Ellis and Angel was able to score a big end of 7 and then followed up with a 5 a few ends later to help narrow the margin. Pauling was able to close the margin on Trewhella and Opie picked up some shots against a very steady Tom Mitchell skipped side along with Ross Bresland’s rink grabbing a much needed count of 4 for them through out the next hour of play saw the margin narrow right down to just 12 shots with around 15 ends to play.
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• Manning – Premier League Pennant winners.
The most unlikely comeback looked a possibility but the Mitchell rink of Grigg, Hogg and Kemp closed out there win over Opie, Kinnane, Manton and Griffin by 8 shots and Daniel Trewhella drew shot on the last end of his match it was the final nail on the coffin leaving the superbly led Will Hyatt rink with the dynamic play of David Downey along with Alan Heal and Mitchell Walker to close out the match with a 7 shot win over the Bresland rink. Manning were duly presented with the Professionals Men’s Premier League flag and shield with former international cricketer Brad Hogg in just his third season of bowls taking the microphone on behalf of the club. Whether it was real or the thrill of the moment Hogg claimed the pressure and the atmosphere of the final was as intense as any sporting moment he had been in, which is amazing consider he won a World Cup with the Australian cricket team.
1st Division White Gosnells are The Professionals 1st White champions for 2021-22 as they claimed the title over Mt Lawley by 12 shots. Amazingly had they bounced back from a 30 shot defeat to the same team the previous day. Mt Lawley had been the best team all season finishing the year clear on top of the ladder however the Gosnells players showed they were up for the challenge as they played great bowls in the grand final to claim the title. – continued page 15…
• Gosnells – 1st Division White Pennant winners.
BowlsWA • Jack Hi • Autumn 2022
