Tara Murray
Melbourne Extreme wasn’t able to repeat the heroics of the last Bowls Premier League, missing out on finals in the 16th edition of the competition.
After finishing runners-up in their second time in the competition earlier this year, the Club Sunbury-based Extreme had a mixed week last week up in Queensland.
With every team still in finals contention heading into the final day of play, the Extreme needed to finish strongly.
The team of Flapper, Carla Krizanic and Ali Forsyth started the final day with a win against the Moreton Bay Pirates, but a loss to the eventual winner Melbourne Pulse made the task a lot harder.
The Extreme finished their competition on a high with a two set to nil win against the Sydney Lions but it wasn’t enough to make finals.
The side finished in sixth spot, equal on match points behind the fifth placed Moama Steamers, who finished one set point and percentage ahead of them.”
They both finished with nine wins and nine losses for the event.
Melbourne Pulse made it back-to-back wins, beating the Adelaide Pioneers in the grand final.
Extreme team manager Marc Bullows said it was a mixed event for the team. He said they were far from disappointed with the result in a really even competition.
“We started strong in the competition but fell away mid comp, losing four out of five matches on day four, many by the smallest of margins,” he said.
“Day five we needed to win minimum two out of three matches to make finals.
“We won two out of three beating Sydney Lions in our last, unfortunately our fate was out of our hands and we were relying on Moama to lose their last match which they won on their last bowl, taking our spot in the five on percentage.”
Bullows said Flapper rose to the occasion with another brilliant performance at this event, always seeming to lift when the cameras were rolling, while Krizanic and Forsyth were solid all week.
He said plenty of Club Sunbury members made the trip up to support the team which was fantastic.
“Very proud of our team and the way they represent Melbourne Extreme and Club Sunbury,’ he said.
The same team will compete in BPL17 to be held in Moama in February 2023, while Krizanic, Flapper and coach Kelvin Kerkow set to represent Club Sunbury in the Ultimate Bowls Championship in December.
