KEW HEIGHTS BOWLS INTO PREMIER.

Kew Heights Sports Club (now MCC-Kew) has performed the absolute fairytale season in Division-1 lawn bowls.
On Saturday (15/3) at Doncaster they beat Yarra Glen by one-shot, with the very last bowl of the match (82/81) to claim the ultimate ‘Grand Final’ reward as the best team amongst the 40 competing clubs at this elite level.
The win confirms the club's promotion to ‘Premier Division’ status next season as one of Victoria’s ten best teams.

But, the victory didn’t come easily, and Kew Heights only won it with the very last bowl of the day. There can be no more pressure in the game of lawn bowls, when Kew Heights was 3-shots down on that last end with the match scores level, so it would take a miracle bowl to win it.

And that’s just what local resident Peter Pervaz did as the rink ‘skip’ when he delivered the perfect draw-shot on the lightening quick 18-second green - watched anxiously by his rink, which included (3^rd) Tom Ristic, (2^nd) Ron Makin, (Lead) Aaron Van-Haaften.

Kew Heights only reached the Div-1 Final-4 for the first time in the second last round of the season. They then won consecutive knockout finals against top-of-the-ladder Deer Park, then destroyed 3^rd placed-Werribee for the Section-1 Pennant, and then overcame Burden Park in the Divisional semi, which earned them promotion to Premier Division. And then, just to top it off, they took the ultimate Division-1 prize with the one shot Premiership win over Yarra Glen.

All of this was on top of a poor start to the season when at a 1/5 win/loss ratio, the talk at the Club was “how they were going to handle avoiding relegation?!!!!” An absolutely amazing form turnaround & one of “great character by the 16-member team,” said first year Coach Garry Ball, at the presentation ceremony.

The club was in 6^th place with 3-rounds to go in the fixture season, so to finish 4^th, then beat all comers in the 4-finals, including some clubs with many high profile names on a payroll, was a story as unlikely as David & Goliath.

It is reported that no Division-1 club has ever achieved winning the Premiership after not even being in the top-4 with 2-rounds to play, and it is unlikely it will ever happen again.

It’s just a remarkable story of achieving what looked like the impossible dream!

Kew Heights defeated Yarra Glen. 82/81 for the Div-1 Premiership.
The all-conquering Kew Heights (now MCC-Kew) teams & rink scores were…

(S) Ray Jansen, (3) Simon Collett, (2) Graeme Spry, (L) Neil Jewell. - WON 21/16
(S) Peter Pervaz, (3) Tom Ristic, (2) Ron Makin, (L) Aaron Van-Haaften. - LOST 19/22
(S) Garry Ball, (3) Angus MacIsaac, (2) Brad Imberger, (L) Michael Haigh. – WON 23/21
(S) Mick Pacholli, (3) Grant Pickering, (2) Brian Wintrip, (L) Eng Ang. – LOST 19/22

You can read a full & more detailed report on each Division-1 final on the MCC-Kew website. www.mcckew.com.au