Bowls Blitz 2021
Stars shine in inaugural Bowls Blitz The first season of Bowls Blitz came to an end on Sunday seeing the Blooms the Chemist Stars playing the Trophy Warehouse Pinnacles in the Grand Final at Cambridge Bowling Club on Sunday 8th August. To complete the season, eight teams of eight players, played 13 singles games, 18 pairs games. 9 triples games and 7 fours games across fourteen rounds and two finals rounds over four days from May to August with Mt Lawley, Willetton and Kardinya Bowling Clubs hosting the first three days of competition. With each round only going for 90 minutes and with a mixture of disciplines played during the day, the best bowlers in Western Australia produced some of the best competition and bowls seen in this state for many years. This was showcased right to the end when several last end bowls under huge pressure swung the results in tightly fought contests. The use of a modified points system also showed its value when final ladder positions in the top four came down to less than a handful of points. With a point for every end won, as well as ten points for a rink win, it showed the value of teams being able to grab the extra end points even when in a losing position. The final day started with two rounds remaining and five teams still a strong chance to finish in the top four with a sixth team with an outside chance. After round 13, the fifth placed Variety - the Children’s Charity Chargers moved within striking distance of the top 4 with a dominating win over the sixth placed BCiB Blitz. However, their run came to an end when they lost two rinks to one against the bottom placed Henselite Enforcers in the fourteenth and final round. That left the top four teams at the beginning of the day, do enough to complete the round robin games as the final four and ready for finals. Blooms The Chemist Stars moved from second at the start of the day into top position with 510 points, 15 points clear of second and securing the advantage of picking what green they would play their Semi Final on. Second to fourth positions were only separated by six points with the Senior Recreation Council Sharpshooters finishing second on 495 points, Trophy Warehouse Pinnacles third on 491 points and the Dyenamic Cyclones fourth and having to face the top side in the Semi Finals, on 489 points. The two semi finals saw the match up of 1 v 4 and 2 v 3, with a combination of two singles games, a pairs game and a fours game to be played.
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• Inaugural Bowls Blitz champions – Blooms The Chemist stars.
This would be the first time that all eight members of each team would be on the green at one time as the round robin games only required six players on the green with the other two substituting in during the game. How this would change the tactics of each team was yet to be seen. Managers would still be able to make substitutions by changing a player’s position within the team or change players between rinks during the game, but they could only do it a maximum of three times. Before the Semi Finals began, the presentation of the Blitz Most Valuable Player was made along with the competition’s sportsmanship award. The Sportsmanship award was selected under the values of how a player conducted themselves towards teammates, opponents, officials and management. The worthy winner of Blake Butler from the Stars was deservedly awarded the Sportsmanship medal. It was then onto the inaugural Bowls Blitz MVP award. After each match, the managers would get together and award three, two and one votes from the 16 players involved in their fixture. After receiving votes in 8 of the 14 rounds played, the Cyclones Clive Adams took home the first Bowls Blitz MVP medal. In the semi finals it was the Stars who survived an absolute thriller against the Cyclone’s with the match going right to the very last bowl. The singles would to be the deciding contest were Blake Butler produced the goods with a superb draw shot in his Singles match against Clive Adams when down game and match Butler rested onto the shot bowl to level the scores 17 all after the regulation 90 minutes of play and send the Stars into the final 55-48. The other semi final saw Variety-the Children’s Charity Sharpshooters against the Trophy Warehouse Pinnacles. Again the final singles match was crucial, Sharpshooters Miles Kemp shot to an early lead in score and ends won but the Pinnacles Noelene Abe fought back late to not only square the rink points with a 14 all drawn score line but also win six of the last eight ends to also square the end count. The Abe surge cemented the Pinnacles overall win and advancement to the finals with a 59 - 48 points win. So it was two top teams fighting it out to become the first Bowls Blitz champions. …Continued on page 9
BowlsWA • Jack Hi • Winter 2021
