Round Two certainly produced a couple of thrilling clashes, none more so than the Ravens one shot win over the improved Hawks, down to the last bowl to decide the winner.
Whilst at the home of the Lions, the big crowd on the upstairs balcony witnessed another great game, with the visiting Bay boys prevailing by only four shots.
The other fixtures went as expected.
LEEMING 75 (2) v SAFETY BAY 79 (6)
Vandersluys, Karl 18 v Hall, Ron 19
Anderson, Alexander 18 v Owen, Christopher 26
Ford, Gard 19 v Carruthers, Chris 16
Newton, James 20 v Daddow, Alan 18
Well, well, I asked for a Hall v Vandersluys clash, and that is what happened.
What a game we witnessed with two good sides, and two top class skips going head to head all afternoon, only for Hall to win by the narrowest of margins, well done you guys.
The other winner for the visitors was Chris Owen and his rink of Boddy, Dellar, and Kennedy, who had a comfortable eight shot win over Anderson and his team.
I predicted the home side would win this one, but it was not to be.
Great win you Bay boys.
GOSNELLS 84 (6) v SPEARWOOD 76 (2)
Maurice Crabb 23 v Nikola Silich 14
Brett Holland 20 v Ken Nadilo 21
Grant Nicol 18 v Vled Pesich 16
Frank Carbone 23 v Ivan Unkovich 25
The visitors certainly took it right up to the Kookaburras, but like last week they fell short again, losing by only eight shots. The returning Maurice Crabb was the difference, winning by nine shots over the Silich rink. Crabb took over this rink from Innes, his third today, and they were well led by Beauchamp and Harris.
The other winner for the home side was The General in Grant Nicol, now two out of two.
The ever reliable rinks of Nadilo and Unkovich grabbing two valuable points for the visitors.
MANNING 121 (7) v ARMADALE 60 (1)
Alan Pryce 16 v Brian Davis 21
Shane Adams 39 v Blair Griffiths 15
Greg Quann 37 v Craig Davis 8
Stephen Hughes 29 v Brandon Heta 16
The Eagles really thrashed the hapless Storm who were certainly outclassed on three rinks, losing by twenty four, twenty nine, and thirteen shots. The winning skips being Adams, Quann, and Hughes. Surprisingly the rink skipped by Allan Pryce lost by some five shots to Brian Davis and his team. Quann skipped his rink of the mercurial John Evans, Brian Wright, and Mark Ellis to a massive twenty nine shot win over the Davis four. Certainly a lot of Premier League experience in the Eagles sixteen.
Manning report
The Eagles had waited all week to make amends for last week’s showing, and unfortunately for Armadale it was them on the receiving end. Two big rink wins from Adams and Quann (24 and 29 shots respectively) pretty well had the Eagles into an unlosable position all day.
The one shining light for the Storm was the Davis rink, who appeared to be in control all day, but had to fend off a late charge from the Pryce rink from Manning – due in no small part to an excellent display of lead bowling from Merv Hughes.
Manning makes the long trip down to Safety Bay next week, feeling much better taking with them a 1-1 record as opposed to heading down to the Bay 0-2, which could have caused some questions early on in the season.
Quann, Ellis, Wright, Evans 37
Davis, Shean, Duncan, Martin 8
A big win here for the Quann group, setting up the result for the day. The Eagles won 16 of the 21 ends and really played as a team all day. After winning a 7 on End 8, they jumped to a 17-5 lead and just kept on going from there.
Pryce, McLLHeney, Bowden, Hughes 16
Davis, Earl, Halliwell, Baker 21
The Storm started very strongly here and got out to a lead of 21-7 by End 17. The Eagles then went on to win the last 4 ends to bring it back to a very reasonable 5 shot loss. Skipper Pryce had a great year last year and all at Manning know that that form will very quickly be on show again.
Adams, Adams, Rees, Lill 39
Griffiths, Liddell, Fitzgerald, Lander 15
By End 9 the Adams rink was up 25-5. However, they had a very similar lead in Round 1 and went on to a narrow loss – and were determined that this would not happen again. Some good attacking calls from Adams made sure that his team didn’t let up and continued on to score shots all day and go on to a well-deserved win.
Hughes, Hogg, Connell, Lambert 29
Herta, McKay, McKenna, Holt 16
Some great bowling from his team gave Hughes a bit of an armchair ride here for the Eagles, taking them out to a 21-6 lead after End 11. However the game steadied here for the Storm and some good bowling from them in the second half of the match kept the score difference the same for the rest of the match.
FREMANTLE 101 (8) v VICTORIA PARK CARLISLE 72 (0)
Wayne Heldt 33 v James Holland 16
Barry Coote 24 v Michael Simms 23
Peter Wachmer 16 v David Florance 15
Dinko Bacich 28 v Robert Johnson 18
My friend from the home of the Reds tells me that this game was a really close tussle until about the three quarter mark, when the home side then pulled away.
The experienced rink of Heldt, Gibson, Moore, and Chessell always had control on their rink, and they gave the home side confidence, Heldt and Moore proving to be good pickups.
They thrashed the rink skipped by Jimmy Holland by seventeen shots, a good win.
The other good win for the Mariners was the rink of Bacich, Stewart, Bowden, and Mark Holt who beat the Johnson rink by ten shots. But the big story of the day was the fourteen shot turnaround that the Coote rink had against Simms, who was devastated with the one shot loss.
THORNLIE 78 (6) v HILTON PARK 77 (2)
Gary Beckwith 20 v Robert Hunter 18
Tony Churcher 23 v Travis Simpson 15
Norman Holden 20 v Gary Dodd 24
Glyn Vaughan 15 v Craig Standley 20
The visiting Hawks put up a really great fight out at the home of the Kookaburras, but fell agonisingly short of the aggregate win, by just one shot.
The big difference between these two teams was the winning rink of Mitchell, Walker, Collier and skip Tony Churcher who won by eight shots over the Simpson four.
Beckwith was the other winner, with Dodd and Standley fighting hard to nearly grab the win for Hilton.
The Hilton Hawks showing that they cannot be taken lightly this year.
