THE immaculate rinks of Murray Downs Golf & Country Club will play host to the first weekend of the Murray Valley Bowls Division 1 finals.
Murray Downs has home rink advantage in their qualifying final against bogey side Racecourse, while Lake Boga and Swan Hill will face off in an elimination final.
Racecourse has been the only side to defeat reigning premiers Murray Downs this season.
After falling to them in round 1, Racecourse bounced back in the following two contests, defeating them 68-58 and 71-65.
Murray Downs premiership-winning captain Joshua Thornton told The Guardian his side was wary of the opposition but backed his seasoned campaigners to get the job done.
“Racecourse is having a great year and we’re not taking them lightly – they’ll be tough to beat,” he said.
“I think they’ve got a good nucleus of experienced players, but also picked up some blokes in the past four years who have kept continuously improving, and it’s showing with their results on the rink.
“We haven’t had as good a regular season as past years’ but were confident if we play to our best, we’ll win.”
Having played in the previous three grand finals, including last year’s triumph, Murray Downs has the deep finals experience every side craves
“We tend to play well at the right time and we’ve picked up a couple of players this season to nullify any complacency in Ray Wilson and Peter Brook, who are hungry to win a final for us,” Thornton said.
Racecourse Bowls Club president Norm Smith told The Guardian earlier this week his side was looking forward to the challenge.
“Finals is a different game, but we’re more than happy with how we’ve led into it,” he said.
“Hopefully, we’ve improved enough to take it up to Murray Downs in the finals like we did during the regular season and give them a run for it.”
Lake Boga v Swan Hill
IT’S another toss of the coin in the elimination final with the fairytale story of the season, Lake Boga, returning to finals to take on perennial power Swan Hill.
Boga just held onto third from a late-season charge by Swan Hill, but the Swans won’t have any qualms finishing fourth, having won the premiership from that spot before.
Swans president Brian Richardson said his side needs to find consistency in the big game.
“We’ve definitely been the fourth-best team – in the past, we’ve been a bit stronger collectively – but were heading in with high hopes,” he said.
“If we can bowl consistently – which has been our biggest issue this season – we’re confident we can prevail on the day.”
Swan Hill head in with form, having won two in a row, and will be backing their finals experience in the do-or-die contest.
“We’ve got some highly experienced finals campaigners at our club in our coach Brian Mansbridge, Lyndon Shadbolt and Gary McGrath,” Richardson said.
“Finals is a beast of its own – it’s a lot more intense, and every bowl counts – the atmosphere is everything you want it to be.”
Lake Boga is up 2-1 in the head-to-head between the sides in 2022-23 but hasn’t beaten a fellow top-four opponent since November, including losing 85-55 to the Swans in round 11.
However, Lake Boga skipper Ken Hamill is backing his side to turn it around as the club heads into Saturday excitedly with all sides in finals.
“We hope to give them a good run for their money and if we play well, we can keep up with anyone in the competition,” he said.
“We’ve had a pretty good year – especially for a smaller club like ours who struggle for numbers sometimes – so hopefully, we can progress past week one.”
