Three teams in the Geelong Ballarat Premier Division remain undefeated after three rounds and the new look Ocean Grove Premier Division side happens to be one of them.
Following wins against Victoria in Ballarat and Eastern Park at home the Grovers will again hit the road in round four for a blockbuster against undefeated Sebastopol.
Doubt surrounded the match getting underway at Ocean Grove on Saturday but the weather gods stayed kind to enable all home teams to get a start.
Tom Warren, Paul Cameron, Will Collihole and Mick West got the Grovers out of the block to set up the overall win accounting for Eastern Park skipper Nathan Bush by five.
Leigh Mcilvenny, who returned from his first berth at the Victorian State Trials last week, skipping alongside Mark Featherston, Terry Brady and Ken Thomas were also able to take the majority of control in their match recording the win by seven.
Matt Flapper, Chris Price, Cal Hanna and Craig Rippon kept their clean record intact with their eight-shot margin which earned the home side the 16 points and the seven-shot overall margin.
Alan Callow at the helm of David Rudge, John Gibcus and Brian Boyle made sure the Division 1 side opened the bank account when they dominated their round three match at St Leonard’s.
Only allowing their opposition to score 10 on their own deck is remarkable but also having the scoring power to accumulate 35 was the match winning effort.
Rod Brehaut chipped in with a three-shot buffer on his rink to allow the visitors to walk away with the 10 match points.
A game with limited atmosphere, a game of nothing to lose, a game of limited encouragement for your teammates resulted in a cliff hanger on Ocean Grove’s B green when the two Division 3 sides went head to head.
Grove’s third side taking on the club’s fourth side and it was the fourth side in control for majority of the match, 99 ends in fact.
Steve Parry, playing third for Warren Davis, played the match-winning shot which culminated in the third side gaining the shots required to steal the match by one.
Ocean Grove 3 keeping their unblemished position at the top of the table in the threes.
Karla Turner, Dick Clay, Dan Goodall and Garry Redford ensured Ocean Grove would finish in the positive on the major scoreboard with their rink’s 34-17 result in Division 5. Home against Highton it was also the first win on the board for the fives as Dave Stonehouse and Peter Kuschert led their rinks to the two extra points on each.
Two wins out of three was just enough to push the Division 11 side to the top of the tree after three rounds and it was Robert Fletcher, in only his second pennant match for the club, along with Stan Chivilo, Peter McCalman and skipper John Hoult that led the way with their 31-19 rink win.
Another all Ocean Grove match up took place last week when the two Division 1 midweek teams went head to head.
On this occasion Ocean Grove 1 the current state champions proved too good, winning the match 76-54.
Only two matches have been completed thus far with one a wash out in round two.
Betty Wilding, Lizzy Braley, James Rogan and Jo Whitehead dominated round three against Belmont to provide the match-winning score line of 33-7 to register the second win so far in Division 3.
Nancy Quinton stepped up to the plate and displayed her skipping prowess when they travelled to Inverleigh for their round three Division 4 battle.
Ray Foley, Trish O’Brien, Bob Brooks laid the foundation to record this season biggest win so far 47-10.
A two-shot win to Joyce Fraser and a rink draw to the Sue Gorwell combination almost clean swept the match points on offer.
The impressive start in the midweek competition continues as the Div 5 side accounted for Anglesea.
Kevin Parker, Robyn Cary both new to the Grove uniform joined Shelley Westlake and Lyn Stonehouse to register a 10-shot win which was enough to push the margin in favour of the Grovers by four.
Top of the table after two games which is a great start to the season and the platform set for upcoming weeks.
