Werribee has reverted back to its old ways on the road in Bowls Victoria’s division 1.
Historically, the Bees have struggled in away games, but they seemed to turn the corner last season, producing some of their most stirring wins at opposition venues.
In their two away outings this campaign, the Bees are yet to taste victory, their only win in three games coming in the season opener at the Hive.
Bees skip Snowy Barker was left questioning the desire of his players following Saturday’s 87-75 loss at Preston-Reservoir.
“It was disappointing,” he told Star Weekly.
“I thought we’d have a chance against them, but we just weren’t up to it on the day.
“Everything was fine, the green was good, no excuses. We just didn’t bowl well enough.”
The Bees never really threatened the overall scoreboard. They trailed by 16 shots at the midway point and couldn’t close the gap.
But there’s a silver lining to every dark cloud and it came in the form of two winning rinks.
The Barker and Rob Panton rinks both got up by eight to salvage four points from the carnage.
That was where the joy ended for the Bees, with Mick O’Neil (down 17) and new recruit Brett Dodd (down 15) suffering heavy defeats.
“They’re both seasoned campaigners, but just as a four they played bad,” Barker said.
“He’s [Dodd] been good since he’s returned to the club; he’s a brilliant player, but you can’t rely on him all the time.”
Two bright spots for the Bees is the form of youngsters James Cousins and Dion Warnecke.
New recruits Anthony Briggs, from Lara, and Peter Yasar, who returned to the club after a stint with Bacchus Marsh, have settled in well.
The Bees will be desperate to get back into the winners’ circle after back-to-back losses. But it won’t be easy facing an undefeated Altona Sports at the Hive on Saturday.
“They’ve won all their games,” Barker said.
“They’ve got the carpet, too, so coming here to play won’t worry them.
“We have our sights set on making the four. We’d like to do that and we expect to, but we’ve got to play a bit better. We need to get it together.”
