THE match of the day in Bowls Sunraysia Division One Saturday Pennant round 10 action at Kenny Park turned out to be a ripper between Merbein and Mildura.
The Hawks have experienced a run of outs in recent weeks and went within centimetres of causing a huge upset.
Mildura skips Mark Eckel and Ian Pollock had their rinks running on remote control and registered solid wins for the Magic with Pollock defeating Laurie McLaine 28 to 12, while Eckel accounted for Shawn Fullerton 24 to 19 after a spirited comeback from the Hawk quartet.
Next door Magic’s skip Keith Sharman was in the fight of his life as David Maud had his unit firing on all cylinders.
Eric Watson at second and Evan Rice at third rated into the head all day and created havoc for the Magic’s skip.
With the final end to play the scores were level.
Mildura’s lead Chris Mitchell set things in place registering the shot with his last bowl.
Come what may the Hawks could not dislodge the winner and Magic collected a one shot victory, Magic 64 (10) defeating Merbein 63 (2).
Meanwhile at the Cauldron the Irymple Suns took all before them and registered a convincing all rinks win over Workers.
The foursome of skip David Gray, Darren Cordwell, Graeme Phillips and Wayne McDonald were the standout performers for the Suns logging a 37 to 10 victory over Roger Bray.
Matt West survived to triumph 20 to 19 over Nev Mitchell, while Graeme Lynch returned to the winners circle with a 31 to 15 win over Ken Job.
Ultimately the The Sun’s got home 88 (12) to Workers 44 (-).
At Blackburn Park the Two Blues saluted with an 11 shot win over Red Cliffs.
Mick Donaghy continued his good form piloting his rink of Norm Latta, Karen Crook and Matthew Martin home to be successful 31 to 18 over Fred Giugno.
Alan Crook had all the answers for Michael Clifford winning 33 to 22, and Maurie Press redeemed some Tiger pride collecting the points against Janet Vallance 27 to 14.
Final scores Ouyen 78 (10) defeated Red Cliffs 67 (2).
In Second Division Mildura sent a shot through the ladder leaders Coomealla when Ken Yeowart’s rink of Judy Osborne, Russ Kneebone and Chris Richards collected a 32 to 15 win over Brandon Tyers meaning Mildura have beaten the Cannons twice this season.
Come finals time it will be interesting to watch the contest. Mildura winning 75 (10) to 65 (2).
Irymple have announced their intention to contest finals with a solid win over Nangiloc by collecting all the points winning 81 (12) to Nangiloc 59 (0).
Led by Terry Bourke, the squad of Noel Hiscock, Greg Brown and Russell Lynch recorded a 29-16 win over Jamie Forte.
Workers had a tough battle against Ouyen and the visitors had a lot to play for attempting to lift themselves off the bottom of the ladder.
Their hard work was rewarded when skip Geoff Hahnel, Rodger Anderson, Phil Heenan and Lindsy Munro recorded a 28-10 win over Ron Boyd, meaning an Ouyen win 70 (10) to Workers 62 (2).
Division Three saw the biggest upset in the round when Mildura dethroned the Wentworth Steamers in a complete whitewash with the Magic recording a 102 (12) to 55 (0) victory.
Dennis Lloyd, Ian Livingston, Bernie Sharp and Marlene Scheele led the way with a solid 40 to 20 win over Jacob Ralph.
On other games Red Cliffs logged a solid 81 (10) win over Irymple 67 (2), Euston 91(10) defeated Workers 67 (2) where Phil Cattanach, Tom Lindsay, Isabella Oliver and Tony Scott the big winners for the Bandits turning in a 42 to 13 result over Geoff Castleman and Underbool saluted with an all rinks win to sneak into the fou 85 (12) to Merbein 57 (0).
In Division Four results included Euston 3 29 (0) losing to Mildura 4 62 (8), Underbool 61 (8) defeated Irymple 36(0) and Coomealla continued their dominance with a 62 (8) defeat of Euston 2 32 (0), finally Red Cliffs put in a 62 (8) win over Mildura 5 36 (0).
Ladder:
Division One: Mildura 82, Irymple 81, Ouyen 63, Merbein 49, Workers 46, Red Cliffs 39.
Division Two: Coomealla 88, Mildura 81, Irymple 80, Nangiloc 55, Workers 32, Ouyen 24.
Division Three: Wentworth 86, Mildura 79, Euston 70, Underbool 62, Irymple 55, Merbein 50, Workers 40, Red Cliffs 38.
Division Four: Coomealla 70, Mildura 4 50, Irymple 44, Euston 2 40, Mildura 5 40, Underbool 30, Red Cliffs 24, Euston 3 22.
