Strong and gusty winds provided an extra challenge for Sturt’s Wednesday sides on 4 November, but all four teams found ways to adapt and come away with wins.
Sturt I overcame Hawthorn III 109–91 at home, Sturt II produced a strong 114–86 away win over Trinity Gardens, also away, Sturt III defeated Novar Gardens 90–39 and at home Sturt IV defeated Kensington Marryatville III 65–48.
Across the three reports below, the common themes were patience, adjustment to unfamiliar conditions and the ability to finish strongly.
Sturt I report from Team Leader Richard Weeks
We faced Hawthorn III at home.
The team welcomed back Stephen Jones and Riley Harrison.
Conditions were difficult with a strong south-west wind blowing all day, with numerous intense gusts in addition.
On many occasions bowls were pushed against the bias by the wind.
Patience was the order of the day.
The battle was evenly poised at halftime but after the break we found more rhythm and consistency to come away with the win 109–91.
This gave us 16 points to put in the bank.
On to next week
Sturt II report from Team Leader Wyatt Groth
The 16 men of Sturt II headed out to Trinity Gardens Bowling Club for our Round 4 Wednesday matchup.
Going into the game we had a 2-1 record this season, so this match was going to be important for us.
A win and we would go 3-1 and have a nice little early season buffer, whereas a loss would see us at 2-2 and fighting with other teams in the middle of the table.
The pre-game speech delivered by myself and Rocket focused on two things.
First, with the surface being on the slow side it was important that when delivering the bowl you focused on trying to trail the jack. This thought process would hopefully minimise the number of short bowls.
The second focus was to make sure that even if we started off a little bit slow due to the non-Sturt-like conditions of the green, if we could just hang in there and be close towards the end of the game, then we should be able to run over the top of them as we began to feel more comfortable on the surface.
After the final bowl was put down, Sturt II had notched up their third win of the season with three rinks out of five winning and an overall score of 114 to 86.
Two of the three winning rinks achieved come-from-behind wins.
The triple of Rutten, Ludlow and Ettridge got the win on the final bowl of the day. One down on the scoreboard and two down on the end, Rocket delivered a cracking weighted shot to remove both of the opposition’s bowls and win the end by four and the match by three.
In the pairs game, Dunstan and Pratt were behind for most of the day, but they hung in there and got some big multiples late in the game to record a 16–13 win.
The other winning rink was the four I skipped with Badenoch, Mullins and Hughes.
We won the first end, and then the second, then the third and it just kept on going.
At the break we were up 23 - 0 and I asked my more experienced teammates in Mullins and Hughes whether they had ever been in a game like this before, and both were as dumbfounded as I was.
To the credit of my team, they didn’t take the foot off the pedal and kept on powering on winning end after end, until finally on the seventeenth end the opposition broke their duck and scored a one. The result was an amazing 34–3 win.
With a crucial away-from-home win in the bag, we can look forward to returning to the hallowed turf of Sturt for next Wednesday’s game against Toorak Burnside.
Sturt IV quick report and photos
Sturt IV played Kensington Marryatville III at home, buffeted by the strong winds commented on by Richard Weeks above.
Sturt won comfortably 65–48 with two of the three rinks up.
John French’s rink with Giovanni Spagnuolo, Sharon Irwin and Gareth Lloyd, did very well, winning 26–14.
Martin Fry’s rink of John Lampard, Dean Buder and Peter Mann also had a good win, 24–17.