Northern Zone takes third place at Denison as Southern Zone wins first title since 2015

The Southern Zone bowlers laid their claim to be the best in WA after taking out the Men’s Fours Inter Zone Round Robin Fours in Denison over the weekend.

The zones played five rinks of fours against each other, with the Southern Zone crowned the winner on Sunday ahead of South Western Zone by two points.

Northern Zone had won the past two Inter Zone tournaments they had hosted but could not make it three in a row, although did improve on last year’s performance with a third place.

They faced the defending champions Eastern Zone in their opening match and while they came away with wins in rinks two and three a 22-shot loss on rink four all but put the match points out of reach as they went down 116-85.

With each zone only playing each other once the Northern Zone had to win their match-up against South Western Zone to have any chance of claiming the title.

They did so comfortably, taking four rinks to one with a 24-21 loss in rink four the only blemish.

That left them with eight points after two rounds, equal with Southern Zone who they would play on Sunday in what was effectively a shoot-out for the title.

Unfortunately, they came up just short missing out on match points by just four shots in a tight 98-94 loss.

The 27-18 and 20-17 wins in rinks one and three could not offset the 12 shots lost in rinks four and five to give Southern Zone the title on 13 points.

South Western’s win over Eastern Zone pushed Northern into third as they finished on 11 points with Northern on 10.

There was success individually as the Northern fours squad of Ian Carlshausen, Warwick Glenister, Bradley King and Jon Trotter won all three of their rinks, the only fours to do so for the tournament.

Bowls WA also announced the Country team set to take on the combined Metropolitan squad in March later this year, with King and Shane Guidice-Narin named as skips.

Fellow Northern Zone players Michael Ford, Michael Walton, Mark Adams, Stephen Fewster and Bradley Hirsch were also named as part of the playing squad, with Glenister named in reserve.