Tara Murray
It was a much better performance from Werribee on Saturday as it returned to the winners list in the Bowls Victoria weekend pennant, division 2, section 1 competition.
It had been a mixed start to the season for the Bees, but they showed an improved performance against Yarraville Footscray 3 in round three.
The Bees won three rinks on the way to a 9 (16)-50 (2) win.
Bees chairman of selectors and skip Mick O’Neil said they were happy to bounce back this week.
He said the previous week they didn’t play well against Altona, which was likely to be in the mix come the end of the season.
“I said to the boys afterwards that I would be happy to lose every week if we were going to get the overall win,” he said.
“We had two rinks, Snowy [Brendan] Barker’s and Robert Panton’s, jumped out at the start and led by 10 shots after 10 ends.”
O’Neil said with those two rinks on top early it took the pressure off the other two rinks.
Barker’s rink won 26-12 and Panton’s rink won 28-9.
Gavin Joyce skipped in the absence of Robert Smith and after being level at 8-8 after 14-15 ends, came away with a 24-9 win
O’Neil’s rink lost 20-15.
The win moves the Bees back into top four along with Keilor, Bacchus Marsh and Altona.
O’Neil said he expected those four teams to be in the mix come finals time.
This week the Bees face Bacchus Marsh in their biggest test this season so far.
“We think they’ve got a fairly similar line up,” he said. “We’ll see how they stack up again.
“Hopefully we’ll knock them off like last time.”
The Bees second side has started the season well in division 3, section 2 and is currently undefeated.
O’Neil said with both their second and third sides in division 3, they had a big focus on getting the second side promoted this season.
Meanwhile, Hoppers continued its good start to the season as it accounted for Williamstown 2 in division 4, section 1.
Hoppers got the win, 87 (15)-72 (3). Shane Haeusler and Andrew Doyle were the winning skips for Hoppers.
Hoppers is the only undefeated team in that section.
Point Cook and Palm Lakes though both suffered losses.
It was a thriller between Point Cook and Bacchus Marsh 2, with Bacchus Marsh winning 84 (14)-83 (4).
Michael Millen and Bruce Mummery were the winning skips for Point Cook.
Palm Lake lost to Altona 4 convincely , 94 (16)-50 (2).
