Top-of-the-ladder Altona showed local rivals Yarraville-Footscray who’s the boss in a 85-70 western derby win in Bowls Victoria premier division at Civic Parade on Saturday.
The A’s went from zero to 100 in the blink of an eye, while the Bulldogs barely found a way out of first gear all game.
It was the kind of performance that screamed to the rest of the competition that the A’s are the real deal.
“I’m not surprised to be honest because we’ve got that capability in us, we’re a really solid team,” A’s co-coach Ben Loughlin said.
“This one was a big one for us because Yarraville are a good side.”
Altona burst out of the blocks to create a nice lead of 20 shots at the halfway mark.
The A’s were superbly led by the Dane McKinnon and Brad Peck rinks, which started on fire.
Yarraville-Footscray mounted a comeback about three quarters of a way through the game, closing the gap to within 12 shots, but that would be its only chance to gloat as it was otherwise all smiles for the A’s.
“We got off to a really good start through Dane and Brad – both rinks were about 12-1 out of the gates,” Loughlin said.
“They just gave us a good buffer early and we went on with it.
“They had a bit of a run, but then Brad Peck got a five to kick us out a bit again and we went on with it from there.”
There is usually a lot of chatter on the greens when these two rivals lock horns, but it was an unusually subdued atmosphere this time around – well, at least on one side of the green.
“There was a bit of chat before the game,” Loughlin said.
“We got off to such a good start, up 25 to 10 early and that took a bit of the fight out of them.
“They didn’t have a lot of enthusiasm after that.”
Peck’s rink was the biggest winner on the day for the A’s, thrashing Jamie Pearce 29-15. Brett Foley had a nail-biting 14-12 win over Ray Coulter and McKinnon made it a lions share for the A’s with a 24-19 win over Chris Ball.
Yarraville-Footscray’s only winning rink came through Wayne Roberts, who beat Nathan Wilson 24-18 in a powerhouse match-up.
“It was a cracker of a game,” Loughlin said.
“Nathan was on top of the skips table before today, he’s probably second or third now, but Wayne Roberts is as good as any player who has played the game in Victoria.
“We don’t need every rink to win – we’ve got to win as a 16 and Nathan kept him pretty quiet and only lost by about five in the end.”
Altona can head into the break on top of the table with a win over MCC on Saturday, and Yarraville-Footscray will be looking to close the gap on the top four when it travels to Clayton.
