Sport
15 August, 2025
Finals for indoor bowlers
IT was a busy week of indoor bowls in Warrnambool, with the preliminary finals last Friday night and the grand finals of the Warrnambool 2025 winter season played on Monday night.
In division one, the Port Fairy Seagulls have emerged with the premiership.
The Rodney Wilson skipped Seagulls only made the final four by winning the last end of the regular season to snatch fourth spot.
A comfortable win over Allen Armistead’s Wannon Park Dogs in the first semi was followed by victory over George Draffen’s Allansford Cats by six shots in the preliminary.
A gripping grand final saw Port Fairy come from four shots down with four ends to play to go into the last end with scores tied.
Despite Allansford Lions’ skipper Ian Swain rattling through the head with his last bowl, Port Fairy was able to snag a two-shot victory.
The division two grand final was a repeat of the second semi-final, and also of the last round of regular season play, with Doug Byron’s Allansford Panthers doing battle with Grangeburn, skipped by Rylan Pech.
Grangeburn had bounced back from its second semi-final defeat to trounce Brendan Johnstone’s Dennington Dashers in the preliminary final.
Play in the grand final was very close, with only one shot separating the teams after 12 of the 18 ends.
The 13th end proved decisive, with Allansford picking up five shots to open up a six-shot lead.
Grangeburn set up some opportunities in the last few ends but some great bowls by Allansford, particularly by skip Doug Byron, shut down their chances and led to a Panthers victory.
Division three action was also a close grand final.
Gerard Noonan’s Camperdown Magpies won their way through the prelim final with a crushing victory over John Keane’s Koroit Choppers.
This set up a grand final clash with Neville Blackmore’s Dennington Aces.
Camperdown led by five shots at the halfway point of the final, but were two shots down after 13 ends.
They rallied again to win the last five ends of the match and win the flag 22-15.
Camperdown, like Port Fairy, had to work hard to make the finals.
After five rounds of the season Camperdown was at the bottom of the ladder with one win before striking form to win seven of their last nine games, plus three finals.
