Weekly Region Wrap: Mornington Peninsula Bowls Region

by Team BV

Down in the Peninsula, the regular season is extended to 18 rounds as of the 25/26 season. 9 teams of three rinks each make up the top division, with one team having a bye each week and each team playing each other twice.

Mornington Peninsula Bowls Region Inc. Division 1 is in the final stretch of its 25/26 season with 4 games to go. Mt Eliza sit on top with 9 wins, 2 draws, and 1 loss. Karingal sit second with 8 wins, 4 loses, and 1 draw; with Sorrento and Frankston rounding out the top 4. Rye could also jump into the top 4, with the only thing separating them and Frankston being score differential.

Going into the final rounds of the season, Mount Eliza seems to be a lock for finals as their points and their win loss record will be hard to overtake. Karingal also sit comfortably in the top 4 and will be hard to dislodge. For the rest, every game counts. There’s only 17 points that separate 3rd and 7th. With 4 rounds to go, all of these clubs will be pushing to solidify their finals spots.

Frankston are no strangers to State Pennant Championships, having played in the Weekend State Championships three years in a row and winning the Midweek State Pennant champions in 2023. They’ve even got a team in Metro Pennant, where they started in Division 4 and were promoted to Division 3 after their first year. They sit on top of their section with a 10-1 record.

“They’ve been smashing it in metro pennant. We’re hopeful that they can make it to division 2 this year!” says Stan Sliwinski, Frankston Bowling Club.

“What we have done this year is spread our best players across MP Pennant and Metro. We’ve had a big focus on getting our club to Division 1 and our ultimate goal is to get to Premier Reserve. We’d like to give those who play on the Peninsula the chance to play Metro Pennant for a Peninsula club.”

We asked Stan who he thought the toughest sides were going into the final stretch of the season.

“Mt Eliza are sitting on top. They’ve trained up a lot of players that have come over from other sports and in no time they’ve made their way into the top side. They’ll be really tough to beat in finals time but we’ll be right on their tails! I would say Karingal is a big threat as well. Sorrento too, they’ve got great bunch of players and they’re having a great season this year.”

“Our ethos of how we go about it and our game plan has always been the same. We have a good game plan and we stick to it.”

𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑾𝒆𝒆𝒌𝒍𝒚 𝑹𝒆𝒈𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝑾𝒓𝒂𝒑 𝒊𝒔 𝒂 𝒏𝒆𝒘 𝒘𝒆𝒆𝒌𝒍𝒚 𝒇𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝑹𝒆𝒈𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒍 𝑽𝒊𝒄𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏 𝑷𝒆𝒏𝒏𝒂𝒏𝒕. 𝑰𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒂𝒏 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒓𝒆𝒈𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒚 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒑𝒉𝒐𝒕𝒐, 𝒑𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒆 𝒔𝒆𝒏𝒅 𝒊𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒄𝒐𝒐𝒑𝒆𝒓@𝒃𝒐𝒘𝒍𝒔𝒗𝒊𝒄.𝒐𝒓𝒈.𝒂𝒖