It will be an all Highlands men’s final with Kyneton’s Craig Vincent to play off against Gisborne’s Ethan Higgins for the Ballarat Highlands Bowls Region final of the Men’s Champion of Champions.
These two bowlers blitzed their Ballarat counterparts at Sebastopol on Sunday to go through to the final.
In the morning’s quarter final the Highland’s pair had big wins with Vincent comfortably dispatching the Ballan club champion Chris Love recording a 25-8 shot win while Higgins also enjoyed a good win with a 25-12 shot victory over the Daylesford club champion, Pat Torpey.
The afternoon’s semi-final saw Higgins put on an exhibition display of power bowling taking out a commanding 25-6 shot win over the Mt Xavier club champion Chris McDonald, with the highlight coming on the last end where Higgins – after throwing the jack for a long end – played a drive with his first bowl putting the jack in the ditch. His next bowl followed through alongside the jack and out of reach of McDonald’s subsequent bowls thereby giving him a comprehensive victory.
Vincent said the day’s bowls were played in the trickiest conditions he had ever played in due to the strong wind although the greens were in “great nick”.
“The pace varied when bowling away from the clubhouse you found yourself bowling into a strong wind compared to the other end, which was significantly faster as a result of the trailing wind,” he said.
“Fortunately I nailed the line quickly and that assisted me for the rest of the day’s play. “Learmonth’s David Kelly bowled well in the afternoon’s semi final and changed the length of the ends, which was a challenge.”
On the 22nd end, the four shots scored by Vincent played a pivotal part of the game taking him to a 22-16 lead and paving the way for a final result of 25 shots to 17.
Vincent went on to say about the Gisborne Club champion he will be playing off against for the region title that “Ethan is a great young bowler and is currently in ripping form so I expect the final next Sunday will be a very tough match”.
Unfortunately the two women’s Highlands club champions were unsuccessful in the morning’s quarter final also being played at the Sebastopol Bowling Club with Lancefield’s Ann Shipcott 21 shots narrowly losing to Ballarat Memorial Sport’s Michelle Tait, while Kilmore’s Grace Tavener was beaten by Webbcona’s Sarah Braybrook.
Both Tait and Braybrook subsequently won their afternoon’s semi-final matches and will go through to compete for the region title.
The final for the region’s men’s and women’s Champion of Champions title will be played at Ballarat’s City Oval bowling club with play to commence at 1pm on Sunday.
