General News
21 January, 2021
Lakers, Terang dealt return defeats
MORTLAKE Blue and Terang Gold made unsuccessful returns to Western District Bowls Division action last weekend.
MORTLAKE Blue and Terang Gold made unsuccessful returns to Western District Bowls Division action last weekend.
The Lakers suffered a 61-47 loss to Port Fairy Red while Terang was defeated 66-55 by Timboon Gold.
The results left the two sides languishing in ninth and eighth place respectively as the pennant season enters the final stretch.
Mortlake Blue selector Darren Grant said his side was frustrated with the result after all three rinks lost their contests by less than five shots each.
“It’s a frustrating loss because they’re games that last season we were winning by five shots on each rink but this year we’re not,” he said.
“As I said last year, we want to make sure we avoid relegation and these are the games we need to be winning.
“To lose by a small margin down there was very frustrating.”
The Lakers are set to embark on a five game stretch which sees them play Warrnambool Gold, Terang Green, Dennington Jets, Warrnambool Blue and Koroit Blue to finish the season.
Grant said his side would take a realistic mindset into each clash but would be eager to attain as many points as possible in a bid to avoid bottom spot.
“Clearly we want to win against Terang and Dennington and in the other games realistically we’ll be focusing on trying to get one rink off them because any points will be handy,” he said.
“Warrnambool Gold is going to be tough even though they had a fairly convincing loss last week but really all we can do is focus on beating Terang and Dennington and take what we can scratch up against the other guys.”
Terang chairman of selectors Jamie Heffernan conceded it was his rink which proved problematic in his side’s 11 shot loss.
Heffernan’s quartet was defeated 29-15 by Arthur Finch, which cancelled out Barry Stonehouse’s 21-17 win over Shayne Pudney and Andrew Taylor’s 20-19 loss to Geoff Bedggood.
While the skipper took the blame for the loss, he said Terang showed it was competitive but now needs to turn those performances into results.
“There’s no point being competitive if you’re not winning,” Heffernan said.
“We’ve really got to start winning these games against the sides around us.
“We just seem to get in the habit of playing well against the top teams but then we struggle against the lower teams and teams around us.
“I don’t know what the problem is, if I could put my finger on it we would rectify it but I can’t seem to figure it out.”
Terang is now setting itself to win three of its last five matches, with games against City Gold, Mortlake Blue, Warrnambool Gold, Port Fairy Red and Dennington Jets to finish the season.
“City Gold had a good win over Warrnambool Gold so they’ll be tough but I’m optimistic about Warrnambool Gold as we usually go alright against them,” Heffernan said.
“Mortlake, Port Fairy and Dennington I’m expecting us to win them at home.
“I’m reasonably confident without being overconfident of winning those three but in saying that both Port Fairy and Mortlake beat us at home last year.
“We’ll be taking a bit of optimism into those three games at least.”.