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Sport

22 February, 2024

Highland book Saturday pennant grand final spots in division one and two with strong wins

Highland Bowling Club have booked the first two spots across the Saturday pennant grand finals, with Highland Tartan and Highland Red locking in a spot in the decider in division one and two respectively. However, it was achieved in two vastly...

By Michael Thompson

Garry Coburn was thrilled for Highland Tartan to take victory in a thrilling second semi-final against Dunolly Blue, which came down to extra ends.
Garry Coburn was thrilled for Highland Tartan to take victory in a thrilling second semi-final against Dunolly Blue, which came down to extra ends.

Highland Bowling Club have booked the first two spots across the Saturday pennant grand finals, with Highland Tartan and Highland Red locking in a spot in the decider in division one and two respectively.

However, it was achieved in two vastly different ways, with Highland Red looking comfortable from the get-go in scoring a 69-53 win, while Highland Tartan’s victory over Dunolly Blue had a penchant for the dramatic, with a second-half comeback to tie the game at the end of the 63rd end, before winning the extra end on the last shot of the day.

With Highland Tartan also winning through to the midweek pennant grand final on Tuesday, it was the perfect week for the club.

After a wild semi-final encounter, Highland Tartan side manager Garry Coburn was all too happy to book a spot in the grand final, while acknowledging how well Dunolly Blue had played, especially in the first half of the game.

“The first half of the game, Dunolly Blue were bowling very well. I could only talk on my rink, really, but their bowlers were bowling very well,” he said.

“But in the second half, we started to get a lot more bowls around the head, which helps a lot, and we kept plugging away and we got it back to within a reasonable score.

“Dunolly have beaten us twice during the home-and-away campaign but we did well to get over the line on Saturday with the extra end. We had one rink up well, another down, and the rink I was on, we were just two shots down.”

While Dunolly Blue had won two of the rinks on offer after regulation, with Tony Galofaro in front of Coburn 20-18 and Peter Waters’ 25-15 lead over Greg Shay, it was Michael Fryar’s 24-12 lead over Barry Mortlock which gave Highland Tartan a platform back into the game.

But the game was topsy-turvy in the extra end, with a reversal of form seeing Coburn grab three shots to eventually grab a 21-20 win over Galofaro, while Fryar dropped three shots to make it a 24-15 game.

In the end, it was a shot from Shay right at the end which allowed Tartan to take the win.

Coburn noted how many twists and turns there was on Saturday.

“It was a funny set up. Michael Fryar’s rink were winning all day and were up 10-12 shots for a large majority, and when it came to the extra end, he went down by three, but they had a very tight end,” he said.

“Greg Shay’s end was the same, when the head was left for him and Peter Waters to bowl, I think we were holding two to three shots and they were just a couple of inches within one another.

“Greg put together a very good roll to bring it together in the end and draw a shot.”

Coburn’s rink against Galofaro was one of the most daunting prospects of the season, with both Galofaro and Terry Long on top of the player ladder with an 11-1 record, with Chris Williams in fifth and Bernie Lanfranchi enjoying an unbeaten record in eighth.

Coburn knew the challenge that lay ahead for his team, while recognising the outstanding campaign their opponents had.

“Tony is a very good bowler, and he has Chris Williams as his third, who played very well, Terry Long was another who performed well and Bernie Lanfranchi is someone who is a very good leader, and it makes for a good team,” he said.

“I said to my team that we’re playing a very good rink here and we had to keep it tight. Unfortunately, we did that early on but we did a five on one end, and that blew our score out a little bit.”

While it was a semi-final of momentum shifts in division one, division two’s grand final qualifier was a lot more straight-forward for minor premier Highland Red, with side manager Bert Spencer thrilled to get the win.

“We’ve been pretty good this year, and Highland has been pretty active over the last few years,” he said.

Highland Red held sway for much of the day, with Tony Lacey delivering a 27-11 win over Barb Crossley, and Lawrence Barry winning 24-19 over Steven Murray.

While Spencer’s team went down to Darren McCleary’s team 23-18, he still remained philosophical about the result.

“When there’s three teams playing, it’s always a kind of team-orientated game, and I actually had a loss on Saturday, whereas the other two teams covered that,” he said.

“One day you could have a brilliant day, and the next it could fall apart.”

The result now means that Highland will be waiting throughout the week to learn who their opponents will be in both division one and two, with Dunolly Blue looking to rebound when they meet Talbot Gold, while Talbot Brown will meet Carisbrook in the division two preliminary final.

Coburn says he expects Highland’s bowlers to continue knuckling down next week.

“It’s great to have three teams in the grand finals, which is another day for everyone and you hope that everyone has their mind on the job and bowl reasonably well, which is all you can ask and hope for. You have no control over your opposition to a certain degree,” he said.

The grand final is set to be played at Avoca, where Highland got the job done in both games, but as it is in lawn bowls, Coburn expects the conditions to play a large part.

“The conditions from one day to another can change, and change the way the green bowls, which means it could be watered or rolled, but you just have to take it as it is on the day and adjust to it as quickly as you can,” he said.

As for Spencer, who is a selector on the team, he says Highland’s excellent results come about thanks to their individual brilliance, with everyone pulling together to get the results the team needs.

“I think it’s the guys that play. As one of the selectors, you see how good they are. Taking Saturday with Greg Shay, on the last bowl of the day, he produced the goods to get Highland Tartan over the line,” he said.

“It’s a toss of the coin, whoever gets the luck of the bowls, and that’s what it comes down to at the end of the day.”

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