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au Monday March 13, 2017 BENDIGO ADVERTISER 23

LAWN BOWLS SPORT

DETERMINED: Bendigo East's Paul Moller bowls in ON THE MAT: South Bendigo leader Paul Marron. FOCUSED: Bendigo East's Rob Clough. The Beasties
Saturday's thrilling three-shot BBD preliminary final win Marron's rink, skippered by Greg Sherman, was beaten have a grand final to look forward to next Sunday against
over South Bendigo. 26-23 by David Keenan. Bendigo for the third year in a row.

East wins last-end thriller

BY LUKE WEST

BENDIGO East has prevailed

in an epic Bendigo Bowls Di-
vision preliminary final that
came down to the final end
to earn a crack at back-to-
back premierships.
Saturday’s clash between
heavyweight Bendigo East
and the emerging South Ben-
digo on Bendigo’s Yarrington
green promised plenty and
it delivered.
After 99 of the 100 ends,
scores were locked together
at 95-apiece, setting up a
thrilling finale between the
rinks of East coach Darren
Burgess and South’s Ryan
Tainton in which a berth
in the grand final would be
decided by the last 16 of the
1600 bowls sent down of the
gripping contest.
On the final end South
held shot early through
second David White, be-
fore East’s Paul Vlaeminck
snatched it back.
East then picked up an-
other shot courtesy of third
Brian Griffin’s second bowl,
and when Burgess landed
on the kitty with his first, the
Beasties held three.
With the game on the
line, Tainton with his final
bowl attempted to kill the
end, but was unsuccessful
as the Beasties scraped over
the line 98-95 in a game that
finished just after 7pm to set
up a grand final showdown
against Bendigo for the third
year in a row next Sunday.
Although his rink won the
crucial final end, Burgess
was beaten 25-21 by Tainton.
Two of Tainton’s shots
came on the 99th end of the
game to level the scores and
set up the next score wins
scenario on the final end.
While the Beasties are
through to another grand
final – their seventh in the
past eight years – the loss
ended a brilliant turnaround
season for South, which had
finished on the bottom of the
ladder last year and hadn’t
played finals since 1997.
GRAND FINAL BOUND: Bendigo East skipper Aaron Tomkins. Tomkins' rink went down South Bendigo fighting
25-23 to South Bendigo's Brad Holland in a hard-fought clash. Pictures: LUKE WEST back to level the scores at
SO CLOSE: South Bendigo coach Brad Holland. Holland
has taken South from wooden-spooners last year to just
three shots from playing in the grand final this season.
95-all going into the last
end came after it had fallen
11 shots behind after 89 fol-
lowing East’s David Keenan
picking up a six on his 23rd
end against Greg Sherman to
put the Beasties up 91-80.
But shortly after, the rink
of South coach Brad Holland
scored a five against Aaron
Tomkins on their 23rd end to
close the deficit back up.
A three on the final end
gave Holland a 25-23 win
over Tomkins.
After five losses in a row
– the past four of which had
been by four shots or less
– the East rink of Marc Smith
bounced back with a 28-22
victory over Liam Crapper,
while Keenan defeated Sher-
man 26-23.
Preliminary final results:
Division 1
Bendigo East 14/98 d
South Bendigo 4/95
A Tomkins 23 lt B Hol-
land 25;
M Smith 28 d L Crapper 22;
D Keenan 26 d G Sher-
man 23;
D Burgess 21 lt R Tainton
25.
Division 2
Bendigo East v Eagle-
hawk – no results recieved
Division 3
White Hills 16/105 d Cas-
tlemaine 2/87
S O'Connor 22 d S Mc-
Coombe 19;
M Anderson 27 d M
O'Shea 19;
P Brown 18 lt T Robin-
son 33;
S Arbuckle 38 d R Noble 16.
Division 4
Bendigo 16/95 d Strath-
fieldsaye 2/77
J Beecham 26 d J Sone-
go 15;
B Craig 17 lt B Jones 29;
J Trickey 26 d G Ether-
ton 18;
J Cassidy 26 d T Probert 15.
Division 5
Calivil 16/95 d Marong
2/84
B Meighan 16 lt D Bird 33;
A Leech 26 d J Rath-
bone 17;
J Pickles 34 d S Knight 17;
W Miles 19 d N Tate 17.
Division 6
Harcourt 14/104 d South
Bendigo 4/84
K Tribe 30 d R Clohesy 20;
D Gale 21 lt L Wilkinson 26;
B Buchanan 39 d B Mott 13;
R Douglas 14 lt K Pres-
ley 25.
Division 7
Marong 0/63 lt Lockwood
South 16/85
D Penfold 25 lt B Ede 27;
B Williams 16 lt A Malla-
nack 27;
R Mills 22 lt A Archer 31.
Division 8
White Hills 1/35 lt Castle-
maine 13/58
J Valentine 18 t K Carl 18;
R Franzi 17 lt M Walker 40 .