Tara Murray
Werribee’s quest for the Bowls Victoria weekend pennant division 2, section 1 title fell short on Saturday.
Having won through to the decider with a thrilling win against Bacchus Marsh in the semi finals, the Bees faced Deer Park 2 in the decider.
The Parkers had beaten Keilor and Bacchus Marsh in the first week of finals to get through to the grand final.
The Parkers continued that momentum into the grand final, winning 76 (17)-64 (1) on Saturday.
Bees skip chairman of selectors’ Mick O’Neil said in the end they were beaten by a better team on the day.
“It wasn’t to be, unfortunately,” he said. “ We didn’t get off to a good start and we were 15 shots down pretty early on.
“We chased all day and made a few runs and every time we did they responded. It’s a bit disappointing, but the guys gave it a crack.”
O’Neil said when you’re chasing there’s only so long your runs will last and it’s always hard to get back into the game and you need a bit of luck to get back into it.
He said the Parkers just had all the answers in the end.
Brendan Barker’s rink was the only one to come away with any points, drawing 18-all.
O’Neil’s rink lost 20-19, Robert Panton’s rink last 16-11 and Robert Smith’s rink lost 22-16.
The Bees 3 side also played their grand final at Altona on Saturday, meaning a big crowd to support the two sides which were playing side-by-side.
Unfortunately they fell short to Newport in the division 4 section 1 competition after being even midway through the match.
Newport winning 106 (16)-89 (2). Alan Taylor was the winning skip for the Bees.
With their top side having gone one better than last season, O’Neil said there was still plenty to take out of this season.
He’s hoping they can go one better next season and get back into division 1.
“We made improvements from last year to this year and we will improve heading into next year,’ he said.
“We have a few younger guys who keep improving, hopefully we will get there next year. We still did make a grand final and many others didn’t, we have to look at the positives.”
