While this post might seem a little self-indulgent, it needs to be. This was an historic event as ACT Bowls only has records for the past 50+ yrs and our club’s name has been missing on Division One Pennant winners all this time. So, we will use a bit of poetic licence going beyond that timeline and declare it a major milestone event for our small club. Enjoy!
Grade 5
Sometimes life doesn’t always go to plan, but the Canberra Bowling Club Cobra 🐍 div5 group, nothing could be further from the truth this pennant season 🥇🤙. The stars 🌟 in the 5s rounded out a stunning pennant campaign with a demolition of Goulburn Railway 68-49 at the BACT Grand Final day hosted at Belconnen Bowling Club 👉🏼 super effort team 🏆🙌.
The 5s bolted out of the blocks and led by 20 shots very early – Strike Hard and early Cobras 🐍, didn’t they what ‼️ Then cruising home for the remainder of the game. The win was set up by two 14 shot wins on the Jarvie and O’Brien rinks while the third rink battled hard and went down by 9 shots. Congratulations 🙌 5s and Savor the victory 🥇🤙
Grade 1
A key criterion of a bowls club’s existence is to one day win a first-grade pennant. The Canberra Bowling Club Cobras 🐍 have been on the rise for a few years due to some hard work and energy by a number of individuals and you know who you are 🙏. The effort finally culminated in the pinnacle yesterday as the Cobras 🐍 snuck home over the Weston Creek Wildcats in a thrilling BACT div 1 Grand Final at the Belconnen Bowling Club.
Heroes were all over the place. Matt ‘the magician’ Sargeant and his close-knit performers of Hogans (Heroes) and the indomitable Garry Charker, broke out to an early lead over the talented Mac Mclean rink; but this only kept the Cobras in the game as the other two rinks were slow out of the blocks. Half-way through, the Creek up 37-22 and the Cobras 🐍 could be excused to be looking to hibernate. But you don’t turn the toes up in a grand final and the Cobras 🐍 dug in deep and slowly worked their back into the contest (side-note: I guess a Cobra with toes is a lizard 🤷♂️).
Anyway, we digress, driven by the Todd ‘Hollywood’ Trewarne rink who were 0-9 down early, the experience and class in particular of Hollywood and “Errol’ Flynn O’Shaughnessy began to dominate this rink with it’s youthful frontend. Final score up 22-14, a whopping 17 shot turnaround. Brilliant turnaround 👏 guys 🤙.
The middle rink however was also getting pumped early, in particular Creek 2nd Dave Croker dominating the game 👉🏼 who says this game is all about the skips 🤨. But like their neighbours, the ‘wizard’ Jamie Smith and his band of disciplined followers didn’t panic, kept the eye on the main scoreboard and also worked their way back. Although going down 14-22, they did work 6-8 shots back in the second half of the game and if not for that effort, well…..🤷♀️.
The final rink was live-streamed courtesy of Agent Team Canberra and Happy Bowler🙏. And what a contest with two-star studded rinks led by the top-shelf of the Cobra Magician and the Creek’s Mclean. Never to be outdone, ‘Agent’ Mclean worked his team back into this contest to even up the second-half Cobra domination on the other two rinks. There were some great bowls leading to the final end, including a magic draw around the pack by Sargeant which should have given the Cobras 2, but a nibble of the jack saw the Creek take 1 and the mat. Next and final end the Creek hold 4 👉🏼 giving them a potential 3 shot buffer on the big board. But the Magician was having none of that, delivering an intense pressure-filled weighted shot, missing the short front bowl by a millimetre, splitting the shot bowls and reducing a 4 shot deficit back to 1 to the Creek. Start breathing again 😮💨.
This left the score at 55-55 with two bowls to go on the Hollywood rink. Anybody’s game and could BACT hope for a better finish to the div1 Grand Final being streamed around the world ‼️ The Creek had last bowl here and the pressure was therefore on Hollywood Trewarne to do something special. He nearly did, bowl was in the ball-park but missed the jack by probably less than a millimetre. Jack could have sliced sideways to the Creek bowl, could have touched and followed, but the weight wasn’t too bad and the bowl stayed in the head and maybe, just maybe, remained shot bowl 🤷♂️. The body language on the junior Cobras was less than optimistic but a sneaky look by Creek no2 let Skip Whybrow know he believed the Creek were just down. One bowl to go and it comes down to this. And unfairly so in a game of 1,008+ opportunities! Bowl is short and the lads get onto their knees with the measure out …. crowd hold their breath 👉🏼 Trewarne bowl closest, Cobras by one, div1 BACT Pennant to the Cobras 🐍 from Forrest 🥇🏆😍.
A second of relief, silence, joy, disappointment, disbelief to what we’d just witnessed. Then a rush of Cobra emotion and the antics begin – watch the livestream again for the action. Congratulations 1s, proof a team of champions can well become a champion team!! Bad luck Weston Creek Bowling Club 👉🏼 you were great, persevered and, in the end, beaten on a game of millimetres in a sport where every shot and millimetre counts 🙇.
You can relive the game by clicking on this link here:
