The Christmas/New Year break is a good time to take stock of how our teams have fared in the first ten rounds of the season.
Firstly all ten rounds have been played with the cancelled sixth round (due to heat) being completed on Saturday, December 19 in very pleasant weather.
My thanks to Ray Baverstock for his coverage of the tenth round fixture which saw our Boucher Blue team go down for its first defeat of the season to Crystal Brook at the Brook and our Whites record their second win pushing Melrose to the hot seat at number 10 spot on the ladder.
The make-up round on the 19th once again gave us only one winner on the day when the Blues beat Laura at BHAS 112 shots to 81 with three winning rinks to their credit; The green was slick and Peter Davies, Barry Magor, Mark Underwood and Brian Green were far too slick for Antony Kleinig’s rink as they raced to a 20 shot lead in the first 10 ends before the game evened up with an even run home 14 shots to 13 to give the home rink a 21 shot win.
It was not a good day for the Kleinigs as Trevor Gill’s rink drew young gun Max and after a slow start came from six down at the 14thend to score 25 shots to one in the run home to win by 18 shots with 17 ends of the game to their credit.
Brenton Smith, Ross Ferreira, Tom Brewer and Glenn Jackson were opposed to Shane Montgomerie and were one down after 10 but a couple of handy fives in the nine winning ends they had from there on gave them a good win of 10 shots at the bell with Brenton turning in a great game at lead.
The only winning rink for Laura was Skippered by Tod Brand who had Peter Woolford on fire at number three and had a 16 shot win against Sam Mezzini’s rink.
The Whites had their delayed visit to the Brook and John Spillman, John Turci, Malcolm May and Marty Donald were the only ones to beat the locals at their own game with a six shot win over Lin Ingliss; they won nine of the first 13 ends to lead by 11 and withstood a late Brook surge to score the two points for their side.
John Brine, Len Hayball, Pierre Hellmanns and Darryle Thompson almost brought off the impossible against Rob Perry with a 21 all scoreline on the 24th end but were denied their win with the Brookies scoring a one on the last end.
The O’Shaughnessy side only went down by four shots to Wirrabara in their away game and were nearly carried over the line by the efforts of Kevin Saler, Gary Hoffmann, Allan Bennett and Les Dansie who romped home by 20 shots over John Emery; they won 17 ends including eight of the last nine scoring 15 to three in the process.
Our Mahood side couldn’t register a point against the visiting Georgetown players going down all three rinks 79 shots to 50.
Looking at the positions of our teams on the Pennant tables it would appear that the Division One Blues are good candidates for finals play with the Whites having to secure a few more wins to avoid bottom spot; the Division Two side is on the bottom of their table but must get Wirrabara in their sights on the February 13 to climb up one rung; The Division Three side lies at eigth spot and would need stellar games to reach the final four as fourth placed Laura is 42 points ahead but in the second half of the season things can happen and let’s hope they do.
It was great to see currently injured Blues player Rod Adams and former team mate Brian Montgomerie amongst the spectators at BHAS and good to report that both are making progress on the recovery road. We wish them both a speedy return to the green.
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