Lawn Bowls
3 March, 2025
Nhill claim premiership in thriller
The Nhill Bowling Club have won their third Wimmera Playing Area Lawn Bowls pennant premiership in ten years, following a thrilling four-shot win over Horsham City at the Horsham City Bowling Club on Saturday.
Coming into the match as the underdogs, Nhill handled the greens the best, winning two of the three rinks.
Rink one, skippered by Darren Gebert, featuring Greg Ryan, Terry Robins and Ryder Byrnes defeated the rink skippered by Anthony King, featuring Bruce Campbell, Govan Bellinger and Colin Morrel, 25-21.
Rink two, skippered by Kevin Jones, featuring Brad Blackwood, Barry Morrison and Roger Brown won 23-20 over the rink skippered by Ron Dolby, featuring William Hogan, Geoffrey Inglis and Gary Knight.
Horsham City's winning rink, skippered by Kevin Clyne and featuring Graham McDonald, Michael Turner, and Derek Ballinger, won 22-19 over the rink skipped by Allan King and featuring Ivan Reichelt, Russell Dunlop, and Ray Olney.
Nhill president, Allan King said he always expected a tough match.
"They defeated us in the qualifying final by 12 shots, and in the home and away season, they defeated us at home and we defeated them at their green and they were close margins," King said.
"The teams always match up pretty well and it's always challenging games between the two clubs so we knew we had to bowl well to win and knew we had the ability to put it together, and that's not easy to do in a grand final.
"Heading into the grand final, division two would have been our pick for the best chance to win."
"When you get into a grand final, you can never take them for granted as the score always starts at 0-0 and anything can happen."
King described the match as 'exciting'.
"The game came down to the last few ends, and Horsham City had a chance to win it. Our guys held firm," King said.
"Premierships don't come around often and it's a good feeling.
"We had a pizza night organised at the club and all teams and some supporters returned to Nhill and celebrated till about 4:30 am on Sunday."
"Members from the Kaniva Bowling Club also came in on their way home and had a few drinks. There was a lot of good fellowship."
The Nhill Bowling Club had an excellent season. Their team competed in the division two and three grand finals, but lost division three by one shot. They also made the Midweek Pennant finals for the first time in eight years.
"It has been a pretty successful season and I am pretty proud of everyone at the club," King said.
"We have been batting above our average and pretty happy with the overall results."
