City Memorial Bowls Club eyes strong second-half of midweek pennant season

After fielding two teams during its last campaign - a green and gold side - the club created three jewels to fill out its division one roster this summer; the Diamonds, Sapphires and Rubies.

But with multiple teams comes ample responsibility to get selection of teams just right.

"We're lucky that we have the amount of players we do have," bowler Pauline Burleigh said.

"At the moment, on Saturday's, we've got a team on top in every grade except one.

"But we've struggled at the start of the year with our division one midweek teams.

"We were fifth, sixth and seventh on the ladder (after six games) and normally we're up a bit higher than that."

The league played its round two make up games on Tuesday, with a big win from Burleigh's City Diamonds lifting the side into fifth ahead of the Christmas break.

Burleigh remains confident recent changes to her side will pay further dividends when play resumes in the new year.

"Our rink was changed today; we had a new skip and lead, and I was back to second," Burleigh said of Tuesday's game. "We played well.

"We just need to get some big wins, settle the team down and we'll see what happens."

Lining up against one of its sister sides, City Rubies, Burleigh's rink, skipped by Ken Bell, walked away four shot winners.

Though the overall 29-shot win was in large part due to the domination of Greg Ritchie's rink (+27).

With the bowling season suffering a delayed start, Burleigh said the short break would help bowlers recoup from a jammed-packed playing schedule, which include pennant, club championships and state competitions.

Midweek pennant resumes on January 11, though Burleigh will return to the greens earlier, with a divisional state fours round on Sunday, January 2.

Joining Burleigh in a team is Julie Dosser and Moira Cocknell, while Casey Sheehan steps into the side for an unavailable Kate Lloyd.

Burleigh said the team would look to carry recent state success into their 2022 games.

"Kate Lloyd and myself got to the final four of the state pairs in May," she said.

"And the year before we played in the fours and got into the second round, then Moira and I made it to the State Over 60s Pairs."

In other results, one shot separated the top two division one teams this week, with ladder-leaders Koroit Orange earning the spoils over Timboon Maroon, 62-61.

Warrnambool Gold solidified its standings inside the top four with a 78-44 win over City Sapphires, as Port Fairy Gold defeated Terang Gold, 76-46, to rise off the bottom of the ladder.

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