Men’s Country Round Robin Report
The Men’s Country Round Robin was played at the Marion Bowling Club from the 10th of February to the 13th of February 2015 between all the 8 country regions.
Each region had selected the top 20 players to play in event conducted by Bowls SA with our players representing Eastern Region 6 coming from players in the Hills Bowling Association, Lower Murray Bowing Association and the Southern Mallee Bowling Association.
Unfortunately due to the extreme heat during the week the games were reduced to 18 ends each with two games played on the Tuesday and Wednesday and then three games played on the Thursday to complete the competition.
The first day did not start well for our side coming up against Eyre Peninsula (R5) and Yorke Peninsula (R2). In the morning game against Eyre Peninsula, Eastern went down overall by 7 shots 95 to 88. We had two winning rinks of Peter Mangelsdorf 22 to 13 and Heath Raymond 22 to 19. Andrew Stasinowsky side went down by a single shot 17 to 16, while the other two rinks of Ray Schroeder and Duane Edwards lost by 12 and 6 shots. The overall result of this game could have been different but the Eastern side again drop a large number of shots late in the game to go from a winning position to losing the game.
The afternoon game saw Eastern come up against Yorke Peninsula and this was our biggest loss for the competition of 21 shots 61 to 82. Peter Mangelsdorf rink was our only winning rink in this game 20 to 7 with the other 4 rinks losing their games. Raymond went down by 13 shots, Schroeder by 11 shots, Stasinowsky by 7 shots and Edwards by 3 shots. Overall we were just out bowled during this game, which is typical of the standard of this competition with everyone having to perform at their absolute best for each and every game.
Wednesday was another day and Eastern set out to make amends for the two losses on the first day. The first game was against South Eastern (R1) in a very close and tight game all morning. Eastern ended up winning the game by 9 shots 86 to 77. We had three winning rink of Schroeder by 12 shots, Mangelsdorf by 8 shots and Stasinowsky by 1 shot. The other two rinks were very competitive and assisted in the overall win by minimising their losses of Raymond by 3 shots and Edwards by 8 shots. Overall the mood in the side was shifting and the team was taking it one game at a time.
In the afternoon Eastern came up against Fleurieu & KI (R7), who we have an annual game against for the Nolan Walker Shield in the lead up to the Round Robin. This was our first all rink up win and got us right back in the hunt for the overall win of the event with a massive 46 shot win 106 to 60. Raymond has the biggest win by 22 shots, Stasinowsky by 10 shots, Edwards by 8 shots, Mangelsdorf by 5 shots and Schroeder by 1 shot.
The final day started with a game against Lower North (R8) which resulted in another win to Eastern by 15 shots 98 to 83. We had three wining rinks of Stasinowsky by 11 shots, Mangelsdorf by 9 shots and Raymond by 2 shots. The other two rink of Schroeder and Edwards went down by 4 and 3 shots respectively.
The next game after lunch was against North Eastern (R4) in what was another strong performance by all rinks to set up the last game of the competition. Eastern won this game by 41 shots 105 to 64 in the second all rinks up win of the tournament. Schroeder had a big win by 18 shots followed by Mangelsdorf by9 shots, Stasinowsky and Edwards by 6 shots each and Raymond by 2 shots.
The overall ladder for the tournament came down to the last game between Eastern and Upper North (R3), with the winner of this game taking out the overall Country Round Robin competition. Both side had very good wins enabling them to be sitting at the top of the ladder with a good buffer on shots up overall on all of the other regions. Eastern Region took out the game by a margin of 13 shots 87 to 74 with 4 rinks up and 1 rink only going down by a small margin. Edwards rink won by 6 shots followed by Stasinowsky rink by 4 shots and then Schroeder and Mangelsdorf rinks by 3 shots.
Eastern Region by winning the last 5 games played ended up on top of the ladder with 10 points and 96 shots up from South Eastern Region also on 10 points but only 29 shots up. Upper North came third with 8 points and 103 shots up to be the best of the remaining regions.
The win in the 2015 Country Round Robin by Eastern Region 6 was the first time since 2006for Eastern and the first win since the realignment of boundaries brought the Hills Bowling Association in to Region 6.
The winning Eastern Region Team
Back: Andrew Stasinowsky, Anthony Treloar, Brian (Ruby) Traeger, Roger Zarantonello, Terry Mc Donnell, Graham Wakefield, Colin Crane, Heath Raymond and Neville Mansell.
Front: Joe Conte, Peter Mangelsdorf, Noel Kneebone, Colin Baxter, Brian Maynard, Brian Leckie (Manager), John Jackson, Ray Schroeder and David Hoare.
Holding the Trophy: Lynton Keen, Duane Edwards and Jarrod Pittaway
The overall winning rink of the Country Round Robin also went to Eastern Region with the rink of Peter Mangelsdorf, Graham Wakefield, Brian (Ruby) Traeger and Noel Kneebone. This rink was the only rink for the week to win all of their seven games, which is a very good feat at this level of competition.