THE Pennant Season is winding up for the Christmas and New Year break with the final round of Weekend Pennant for 2024 completed and the final Midweek Pennant round to be played this week.

Midweek pennant resumes on the January 14 and Weekend on the 18th.

There will still be plenty of opportunities to bowl with many clubs staging tournaments (ours are on December 28 and 29) as well as social bowls or just having a roll on your own or with club mates.

In Midweek Pennant Division one had a great win over Kyabram.

Division four were too good for Alexandra whilst Division five went down to a strong Tatura Hill Top team who are now on top of the ladder.

If they can keep their side together, they will be a tough nut to crack come finals time.

Division one versus Kyabram – 67 to 62 and 14 points.

Shane Drysdale, Don Steers, Keith Kruse and Bill Sargood 29-23.

Ken Sutcliffe, Bill Taylor, Anne Sutcliffe and David Cerini 26-11.

Tony Kingma, Kev Milner, Charmaine Reid and Kristeen Boyce 12-28.

Division four versus Alexandra – 95 to 32 and 16 points.

Peter Naughton, Libby Byrne, Mary Steen and Buffy McFarlane 28-20.

Doug Maconochie, Beryl Harris, Max Griffiths and Jan Sheargold 34-07.

Richard Noble, Marg Goode, Pauline Naylor and Dot Lomer 33-05.

Division five versus Tatura Hill Top – 45 to 74 and xero points.

Mavis Bruce, Neville Harris, George Andrews and Beth Alston 07-30.

Margaretha Cerini, Noel Moon, Marion McMartin and Tracey McConnell 16-21.

Greg Blatchford, Ken Drysdale, Ray Day and Mark Jervies 22-23.

Ladder Positions at the conclusion of eight rounds are:

Division one – 6th with 48 points.

Division four – 2nd with 102 points.

Division five – 4th with 70 points.

This week Division one travels to East Shepp, Division four is off to Merrigum (it’s a bit like Ground Hog Day) and Division five hosts Shepp Park.

Weekend Pennant saw all three sides at home for the first time this year and it was great to have bowls on both of our greens.

Division one came agonizingly close to beating Kyabram whilst Division’s four and six had solid victories to sure up ladder positions prior to the run home to the finals.

Division one versus Kyabram – 78 to 86 and two points.

Shane Drysdale, Alex Grant, Charmaine Reid and Keith Kruse 21-22.

Ken Sutcliffe, Bill Taylor, Don Steers and David Cerini 20-19.

Jeremy Boruch, Marc Stevens, Sam Barkly and Doug Maconachie 17-24.

Peter Naughton, Bill Sargood, Kev Milner and Margaretha Cerini 20-21.

Division four versus Mooroopna – 112 to 59 and 16 points.

Tony Thomson, Brian Bamford, Ken Drysdale and Buffy McFarlane 43-17.

Jamie Greasley, Greg Blatchford, Ross Withers and Max Griffiths 20-21.

Richard Noble, Lindsay Cocking, Ray Day and Noel Moon 31-09.

Libby Byrne, Lance Carracher, Gordon Grant and Anne Sutcliffe 18-12.

Division six versus Alexandra – 94 to 36 and 16 points.

James Dunn, Rolly Simpson, Janneke Krueger and Shae Lea Roberts 41-05.

Neville Harris, Marc Jervies, Peta Webster and Beth Alston 24-16.

Tim Scarlett, Max Griffiths, Marg Goode and Davis Llewellyn 29-15.

Ladder Positions at the conclusion of nine rounds are:

Division one – 8th with 39 points.

Division four – 1st with 116 points.

Division six – 3rd with 97 points.

Club Championship games are continuing and there have been some excellent bowls played.

The highlights from last week were the Tony Kingma/Bill Taylor match which saw Tony prevail 25 to 23 in a high-quality affair and the Men’s Pairs clash which saw Ken Sutcliffe and Bill Taylor up against Bill Sargood and Brian Bamford and scores were level with two ends remaining.

In the end experience prevailed with Ken and BT holding steady to win.

The final two Nifty 50 draws for the year resulted in Shane Drysdale and the Grant boys (Archer and Dougie) collecting the cash with Dougie celebrating in a style that not many of us could match.

Nifty 50 draws will resume in line with the return of Weekend Pennant.

All the best, have a great Christmas and New Year and bowl well.