By Tara Murray
It was positive signs for Melbourne eXtreme despite missing out on a finals berth in the Bowls Premier League, while its junior side fell just short of back-to-back titles.
eXtreme took a young squad into BPL21 with Jack McShane making his BPL due having replaced New Zealander Ali Forsyth, who was unavailable.
It was a close race for finals spots and it came down to the final game of the pool rounds to decide which sides would progress.
For the eXtreme, it was heartbreak as they missed out on percentages.
eXtreme team manager Marc Bullows said he was really proud of how the team and coach Kelvin Kerkow performed.
“We were equal fourth, but finished seventh on percentages,” he said. “In any other BPL we would have made the finals based on win-loss ratio.
“We are far from disappointed in the result. We know if we made the finals, we could go all the way as we beat the eventual champions Helensvale [Gold Coast Hawks] twice and the grand finalists in Geelong Jets once throughout the comp.
“Jack McShane’s induction into the BPL was brilliant and played as well as anyone in the competition, drawing several times with his last bowl for us to win.
“Kylie [Lavis, formerly Whitehead] and Nick [Cahill] were solid throughout. We lost a few games by a matter of millimetres, only if those games went our way, well, who knows, maybe it could have been us holding the trophy.”
Bullows said they were already looking forward to BPL22 in October at Pine Rivers.
In the Junior BPL Challenge which was also held last week, eXtreme fell just short in the final.
After a successful first edition in 2024 where eXtreme ran out victors, this year 11 of the 12 BPL franchises fielded teams with Bowls ACT sending a team in place of the Perth Suns.
Teams were placed in two sections with the ladder leaders of each section playing off in the final.
The final was an all-Melbourne affair between the Melbourne Pulse and eXtreme with both teams putting on a scintillating display.
The Melbourne Pulse team of Cooper Sutton, Jack Wardrope and Marlie Malcolm were dominant in section 1, qualifying for the final undefeated.
In section 2, the eXtreme team of Josh Leszcynski, 2024 Australian Open under-18 girl’s champion Akasha Fortune and Eridani Wheeler made it through to the final after only losing to the Gold Coast Hawks.
It was a completely different team to the one that won the previous time.
In a high scoring first set, the Pulse was able to hold off a determined eXtreme lineup by scoring a six on their powerplay to give them the set 9-7.
The reigning champions pushed back hard in the second set to run out 9-2 winners and force the game to a tiebreak.
With the title on the line, the Pulse’s skip in Sutton kept his nerve to draw a shot and ultimately win the title.
