Deer Park will have to defend its title the hard way in Bowls Victorian weekend pennant premier division.
Having finished on top of the ladder, the Parkers took on Moonee Valley in a semi final for a spot in the grand final on Sunday.
Despite the Parkers having been the higher ranked team, the Parkers had to travel to Moonee Valley where both semi finals were being played.
It was Moonee Valley that took the early lead and led by 13 after 20 ends with leads in three of the four rinks.
The margin was back to six after 32 rounds with the Parkers leading two rinks at that point and a third was tied.
Moonee Valley continued to respond every time the Parkers attacked with the margin back to 18 after 56 of the ends.
The Parkers got it back to four with less than 10 ends remaining. Moonee Valley showed composure and were able to pick up some later shots to keep the pressure on the Parkers.
In the end, the Parkers ran out of ends, with Moonee Valley winning
Matthew Baus was the winning rink for the Parkers, winning 22-28.
Arron Sheriff’s rink lost 23-23, Jay Bye-Norris’ rink came back from a horrible start but fell short 20-16 and Sean Ingham’s rink lost 22-13.
Deer Park will now face Bundoora this weekend for a spot in the grand final.
Bundoora beat Melbourne in the other semi final, 90 (16)-64 (2).
Gary Kelly, who was coming off a most valuable player award performance at the Bowls Premier League last week, led the way with a 25-11 rink win.
In division 2, section 1, Keilor’s season came to an end against Deer Park 2.
The top three teams had been the standouts all season and Keilor was keen to cause an upset in finals.
Keilor pushed the Parkers, but weren’t able to get close enough to get the win, with the Parkers winning 86 (15)-75 (3).
Mark Jacobsen’s rink was the winning one for Keilor, claiming the win 22-15, while Jason Silverii’s rink had a 25-25 all draw.
Keilor’s Joe Watkins said the group had shown their never die attitude in the final, coming from 35 shots behind at one stage.
He said they have had a really good season overall.
“In real terms we’ve had 50 per cent of our teams make finals,” he said. “We will have a better Keilor side next year.
“Mark [Jacobsen] has made a huge difference and a lot of people are interested in playing bowls at the club.
“He’s been terrific and we should have a few recruits for next season. We’ll be a lot stronger in sides one through to four.
“We want to get ourselves back to being one of the main clubs in Melbourne outside of premier division.”
Tara Murray
