By Mikayla van Loon
The bowls season has finished up for Yarra Ranges clubs, with just the State Divisional Flag competition left to decide who takes home the top award in each division.
For the Lilydale Bowls Club it was a mixed end to the season, with wins and losses across the divisions.
Disappointingly for the premier side, three losses out of the final four games meant the team was relegated to division one for the next season beginning in October.
“We are disappointed that we’ve been relegated from premier because obviously everyone’s ambition is to play at the highest level,” player and co-coach Joshua Sanders said.
“The last two years, we’ve been in division one and we’ve won the state divisional flag. So it does put us in good stead because even though it’s hard to do, having that previous experience and previous ambition or drive to win the flag and knowing that we’ve done it the last two times we’ve attempted it definitely keeps that fire in the belly.”
Coming up against Mentrone, Deer Park, Bundoora and Croydon, Sanders said had Lilydale been able to beat Mentone and Croydon the team probably would have been safe in premier after taking a surprise win over third placed Bundoora.
But eighth placed Mentone proved too good when it came down to the finals, pushing Croydon and Lilydale to ninth and tenth position respectively.
“So unfortunately, us and Croydon got relegated to division one. But we go into next season, having another crack and seeing if we can do a three-peat of division one titles,” Sanders said.
Having been in front most of the way throughout the last game of the season against Croydon, Sanders said a similar thing to what had happened in most games happened again where Lilydale just could not hold onto the lead, finishing 76 shots to 71 in Croydon’s favour.
It was a different story for the division two side, however, with the team taking a 16 shot win over Heathmont to score themselves a spot in division one for the next season and a chance to take home the State Divisional Flag.
Although it wasn’t an easy run, facing Ringwood in the section semi final and having a rink down in the final, Lilydale showed its fighting spirit to get the win 87 to 71 after 84 ends.
“To lose our top side into division one but to have our second side back in division one again, it’s a win-win.”
The division three team held its own in the semi finals against Ferntree Gully in an away game, winning a rink and drawing another but ended up losing 81 shots to 67.
“That’s a massive achievement for them to go against a club like Ferntree Gully who’s got such a home green advantage and to almost take the win.
“It’s just unfortunate that one rink went down fairly convincingly but it’s onwards and upwards for next year. Hopefully they can take that experience and try to take that next step.”
In division six, Lilydale had finished on top but in the final game against Yarra Junction, three shots was the difference, seeing Lilydale be defeated.
Now that the season is mostly over, Sanders said the club will look ahead to October, with most, if not all players remaining but recruiting is something it will look at to bolster the division one sides.
“We’ll try and recruit a couple of other players just to make us a little bit stronger in both our first and second, which then makes our third and fourth stronger as well.
“We can then go into September when we’re doing most of our structured training and practices which will put us in good stead to the start of the season in October.”
