CITY Memorial Gold is pulling away at the top of the Western District Bowls Division Tuesday pennant ladder after seeing off nearest rival Koroit Orange.
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In an intriguing round, three of the top four sides were defeated, while Port Fairy Gold and Timboon Maroon were able to narrow the gap on the top four with wins.
City Memorial Gold won its three rinks to set up the 89-53 victory. Barbara Bibby prevailed in a tight contest against Trina Dycer 24-22, Pauline Burleigh defeated Ann Toleman 34-17 and Kaye Maddern defeated Faye Bolden 30-14.
Colleen Haberfield, who plays third to Bibby, said her rink played an exciting game, turning around last week’s narrow loss in a thriller.
After Bibby got off to a strong start, Dycer fought back and the clash was neck-and-neck from then on.
“At the 23rd end we were 22-22,” Haberfield said.
“Then we managed to get the next couple of ends. We got one on 24 and one on 25 that put us two shots up.”
City Memorial Gold will enjoy the breathing space the win grants it as it strives to sew up a double-chance spot.
“It’s nice to be up there – last year we had to battle from fourth position to win it (the premiership),” Haberfield said. “But we’ve got four games to go … hopefully we can continue on.”
For Port Fairy Gold, a 90-65 win over Mortlake Blue – which slipped to last place – sees it within striking distance of the top four.
Hilary Hamilton, who plays third to Patty Murray, said the team’s third consecutive win has it hopeful of being a contender at the pointy end of the season.
“We’ve got to keep that momentum going,” she said.
“We’re just hanging in there in fifth, so we’ve just got to get to fourth.
“We had a win last week and we just have to keep winning – especially winning rinks. It’s just nice to get winning rinks if you don’t get the overall win of the game.”
Murray (34-25) and Gill Phillips (32-12) had good wins, while Lyn Harris went down to Anne Van Diemen in a tough 24-28 contest.
“It was just really good to have a win because we’ve only got four games left,” Hamilton said.
“It’ll be a tough game against Koroit (next week), but we’ve only got one (player) out from division one.
“We only lost by seven shots last game, so hopefully we can improve by seven shots.”
In a round of upsets, Timboon Maroon downed fourth-placed Warrnambool Gold 73-71 in a thriller.
Lyn Payne’s 31-18 win over Helen Lock proved pivotal, with Betty Russell losing to Brenda Hawker 21-26 and Noelene Richards losing to Judy Symmons 21-27 in the other rinks. Terang Gold toppled third-placed City Memorial Green 81-60 to move off the bottom of the ladder.