Torquay's Karen Harrington was one of the 12 players selected to represent Geelong Bowls Region in the 6th State Regional Championships held 6-8th April, who did themselves and Geelong proud, winning Gold. The winning side was selected from the 24 clubs within our Region. Team 1 - Veronica Kelly-City : Karen Harrington-Torquay : Tonia Doyle-Bareena : Jacquie McLaren (s)-City. Team 2 - Di Roberts-QCliff : Wendy Ballentine-Highton : Di Monk-Highton : Nicole Shortis (s)-Leopold Team 3 - Carol Howarth-Ocean Gve : Marg Carroll-OG : Kira Bourke-OG : Faye Richardson (s)-OG
The selected side travelled to Murray Downs Country Club at Swan Hill, playing the first game Friday afternoon against 3 time winner Northern Gateway where a good all round performance had Geelong gaining their first points in a 34/31 victory. Saturday was a big day with 4 games of 12 ends. Game 2 had the team carrying on from where they left off, beating another strong contender in Murray Mallee 43/34. Game 3 the good form kept up with a very convincing win over Wimmera 48/16. Game 4 Metro West put a halt to Geelong's winning run when they out-played Geelong to beat them comfortably 29/43. Game 5 Geelong bounced back to their best form to record a hard fought victory over Bendigo Campaspe with a score of 33/26. At the end of the second day, Geelong was leading their section with 8pts & good shots up, Bendigo Campaspe 6pts and Murray Mallee 6pts. Sunday had Geelong to play the winless Central Victoria and then the strong Peninsula Casey squad. A win against Central Victoria in Game 6 and Geelong would be through to the final. However in a costly turn around in form by both teams saw Geelong squander a rare opportunity to close out their section early, falling 34/36. This defeat threw the section wide open. In a cut throat last game both Peninsula Casey and Geelong sides knew the winner would advance to the final. The Geelong side held tough to score a strong 34/32 win. Over in section A, Sandbelt came from nowhere to clinch a spot in the final, lying 3rd on the ladder 2pts & 24 shots down on the 2 leaders after round 5. However the leaders Central Goulburn Murray and Yarra both suffered shock losses and a 29 shot victory over Gippsland by Sandbelt had last year's winners in the final. It was a rematch of last year's final Geelong and Sandbelt. Geelong keen to avenge the one shot loss from last year and Sandbelt wanting back to back titles. The Geelong teams came out full of intention, the Nicole Shortis rink setting up a handy early buffer for the Geelong side with an overall lead of 16/4. Sandbelt fought back to lead by 1 shot 22/21 in the middle stages. The Shortis rink maintaining the lead they had set up early, the McLaren rink recovering some ground and giving nothing away going shot for shot with their opponents. The rink skipped by Faye Richardson had been just up all match then began a powerful surge putting the game out of the reach of Sandbelt. Silver last year, Gold this year for Geelong. Post: 14 Apr 2018
