BOWLS STATE PENNANT FINALS IN HOBART
Bowls Tasmania’s Saturday State Pennant finals commences on Saturday and concludes on Sunday at the Rosny Park and Beltana Bowls Clubs with premiers from Hobart, Launceston, the North West and East Coast playing against each other in the grand finale of bowls for the season.
Teams competing are:
- Premier: Penguin, Sandy Bay and Longford
- Division 1: Latrobe, New Norfolk and Westbury
- Division 2: Railton, Sandy Bay and Midlands
- Division 3: Latrobe, Claremont, George Town and Scamander
- Division 4: Penguin, Cremorne and Longford
- Division 5: Burnie, Claremont and St. Helens
- Division 6: Claremont and Westbury
With COVID-19 impacting on many teams, it is hard to predict the winners.
In Premier Division, some of the best bowlers in Tasmania will fight it out for State Premiership honours. Local premiers for the past two seasons, Sandy Bay will play Longford on Saturday morning in a game that could go either way. Sandy Bay finished in third position some thirty points behind top-side Glenorchy Rodman but had comfortable semi-final and preliminary final wins over Claremont and Kingborough before defeating Glenorchy Rodman in a nail-biting grand final by one shot. After losing just two roster games for the season, Longford is confident of a good showing against Sandy Bay. The loser of that game will play the in-form Penguin who came from third position on the ladder to surprise red-hot favourites Burnie in last Saturday’s Bowls North West grand final. The winner of the Sandy Bay and Longford game will play Penguin on Sunday morning in a game that should decide the State Champions.
In Division1, New Norfolk is full of confidence after losing just two games for the season. They are up against a strong Westbury side and Latrobe who finished in third position but played well in the finals to win the Bowls North West premiership.
Sandy Bay won the Bowls South premiership when is scored five shots on the final end to win its grand final by one shot and look the team to beat in Division 2. Railton finished in third position but won the premiership with a three shot win in its semi-final against Smithton and a one shot win over Wynyard in the grand final. Midlands came from fourth position to win the Bowls North premiership with good wins over Trevallyn, Lilydale by one point and St. Helens in the grand final.
Division 3 is a four team round robin between Claremont, Latrobe, George Town and East Coast premier’s Scamander. Claremont has had a good year winning four premierships (out of four) and is hoping to repeat the feat in State Pennant Finals, however, they won’t have it all their own way. George Town finished second in the Bowls North competition and beat top team Kings Meadows twice to win the pennant. Teams from East Coast have dominated in Division 4 in the past and Scamander is still expected to do well after being promoted to Division 3. Latrobe finished its season well after finishing in third position and went through the finals series undefeated.
It looks like being a very tight tussle in Division 4. Penguin finished on top of Division 4 and won the Bowls North West premiership with two close games. Longford came from third position to take out the Bowls North premiership. Cremorne finished strongly to defeat an unlucky Cygnet in the Bowls South grand final last week. They cannot afford to give teams like Penguin and Longford the start they gave Cygnet last week and still expect to win.
Claremont look the team to beat in Division 5. It lost just two games for the season and had two strong wins in the Bowls South final series to win the premiership. However, Burnie played well to take out the Bowls North West premiership last week and is expected to make Claremont fight hard as will St Helen’s who caused an upset when it defeated Kings Meadows in the Bowls North grand final.
The Division 6 premiership will be played on Saturday afternoon when Claremont takes on Westbury at Rosny Park. Bowls North West does not have a Division 6. Claremont will start warm favourites, defeating Glenorchy Rodman by 39 shots in the second semi-final and easily accounting for Franklin in the grand final by 50 shots. Westbury finished in second position but lost the second semi-final before winning the preliminary final and reversing its second semi-final loss to Lilydale, winning the grand final by one shot.
Premier and Divisions 2, 4 and 6 are being played at Rosny Park with the remaining Divisions at Beltana. Games commence at 9am and 1pm on Saturday and 9am on Sunday. Close games are expected to be the order of the day with food and drink available at both Rosny Park and Beltana on both days.
