2023-24 State Pennant Championships | Weekend
After the first day of play at the 2023-24 State Pennant Championships (weekend), there were two unbeaten teams in each section – powerhouses Moama and Deer Park, both with three wins a-piece. In Section 1, Victoria (Ballarat) and Cohuna Golf both got away with strong starts and were still in contention for a finals berth going into round four.
In Section 2, Wodonga went into round three with two wins and were in the hunt for top spot but a loss to Highton left them sitting second and going into round four on Sunday morning against the undefeated Deer Park, who went on to prove their might.
Going into the fifth and final round, unusually both sections were already wrapped up and the finalists determined – the crowd favourite Moama, would take on Deer Park, who also had their throng of supporters in tow ready to get their voices up for the Grand Final. Round four still saw some tight battles as the remaining teams looked to at least go home in the placings.
| SECTION 1 – Final Ladder | SECTION 2 – Final Ladder |
| Moama | Deer Park |
| Cohuna Golf | Wodonga |
| Stawell | City Warrnambool |
| Victoria, Ballarat | Highton |
| Frankston | Tallygaroopna |
| Bairnsdale | Phillip Island |
In front of a huge crowd at Moama, the infamous Alex Marshall seemed to have met his match against an in-form Jay Bye-Norris, and although Marshall stunned with some spectacular shots, the Deer Park rink led by Bye-Norris were undeterred and with a 6-end winning streak were going to be hard to beat. The other two rinks ended in one a-piece; the Deer Park rink skippered by Ryan Tainton were too strong against big Kev Anderson’s crew with a big 18 – 7 win, but Moama’s Cam Keenan and his whole rink were outstanding to take their rink win 10 – 8. But it was Tainton and Bye-Norris, both in their final hurrah for Deer Park, who sealed Moama’s fate, playing impressively all weekend.
For the stat lovers… for the last three years, the weekend State Pennant runners-up have gone on to win it the following year… so we expect to see the Steamers back vying for a flag in 2024-25!
📊 All results including live scorecards can be found in Bowlslink: https://bit.ly/BV2024CofSPResults
