Werribee’s world has turned upside down this summer in Bowls Victoria’s division 1.
The Bees have done the unthinkable and lost twice in as many games at their Watton Street fortress.
Thankfully, their form away from home has taken a turn for the better this season, keeping them in the top two with a healthy 4-2 record.
The Bees, who hate losing at home, were humbled 76-74 by newly promoted Melton in a shock result on Saturday.
Bees skip Snowy Barker lamented the disappointing loss on home turf.
“It wasn’t as close as it looked on the scoreboard,” he said.
“We needed to get a six on the last end, which was only a minute chance. We needed a miracle.”
The loss was squarely on the shoulders of Barker and Mick O’Neil.
So often it has been those two rinks that have got the Bees out of trouble this season, but they both had one to forget against Melton.
Barker went down by nine, while O’Neil took a 20-shot loss, and that was costly when the overall score was decided by two shots.
“No one is more disappointed than me and Mick,” Barker said. “We let the team down this weekend.”
“To bleed out by 20 shots – Mick will be the first to admit that it’s not acceptable as a group of four players.
“They’ve got to stand up and look to next week, and say that what we did last game is not going to happen again.”
There were plenty of positives to come out of the match for the Bees.
Jayden Christie’s rink got it together in a 12-shot win with Dave Kelly playing a blinder of a game.
Rob Panton is back in the groove, with veteran Peter Ware heavily influencing the result.
Dion Warnecke’s continued strong play for the Panton rink is going some way to cementing his place in the top side.
Barker is calling for a more consistent team performance on the Bees’ trip to Eltham on Saturday.
“It’s not ‘all hell breaks’ loose after that loss,” he said.
“We’ve just got to get back on the bike and have a real crack next week.”
Meanwhile, Hoppers returned to the bottom of the division 2 ladder after a 85-75 loss to Altona Sports.
