The final four of the Geelong Bowls Region Premier Pennant competition seems set with one round to go in the final home and away season.
It would take a monumental upset for fourth placed Drysdale to miss out and even then fifth and sixth would need to by plenty to potentially sneak in.
Drysdale plays Bell Post Hill, which has gone winless this season, so its spot in the four seems assured.
Fifth placed Eastern Park meets top side Ocean Grove and sixth placed Torquay plays Queenscliff, which is sitting second.
The Grovers should claim the minor premiership with Queenscliff needing to make up 14 points to overtake them.
Highton is 15 points behind Queenscliff and meets Lara in a game it should win, but the margin is a bridge too far.
The way it stands, Ocean Grove will meet Queenscliff in the grand-final qualifier while Highton and Drysdale will clash in the elimination final.
In the penultimate round on Saturday 7 February, Drysdale inflicted Highton’s third loss of the season and pretty much guaranteed a finals spot.
The 82 to 77 win gave Drysdale a precious 15 points with John Monahan’s rink of Mark Neicho, Matthew Campbell and Aaron James enjoying the biggest win of the afternoon, 31 to 16.
Jeremy Fitzgerald pulled a rink back for Highton and one rink was a tie, leaving skip Mark Godbolt, lead Maya Rees, second John Fry and third Luke Lawrence to close out the other rink in a tight contest, 22 to 17.
Lara won its second match of the season and will play in the Premier competition again next season.
The 85 to 70 win confined Bell Post Hill to relegation despite winning two rinks through Darren Gillett and Dieter Gercke.
But Ben Cotter skipped his rink to a 12-shot victory and Brendan Umbers prevailed by the same margin.
Queenscliff had a tough match against Eastern Park, but came away with 16 points to have breathing room for a double chance come finals time.
Cal Inderberg was Eastern Park’s sole rink winner while skip Steve Sullivan, lead Richie McGovern, second Barry Gladman and third Seb Monahan had an 11-shot win for Queenscliff.
Ocean Grove is in form leading into yet another finals campaign with a 34-shot win against Torquay.
Skip Tyson Cromie’s rink of Jen Le Cerf, Max Rowley and Tony Joel were unstoppable with a 35-7 win.
