Today I was having a read through the Bowls 360 review of Round 11 of Division 1 Blue South bowls, after Manning’s 1 Blue Crew somehow got up late in the day to defeat Fremantle 77-73 at Fremantle on Saturday to take top spot on the ladder, and I got a good kick out of this edition by the ol’ ‘Southern Star’, because somehow I was relevant enough to get mentioned twice, most notably in the preamble when they mentioned who the top-ranked rink in the entire division is:

What a fantastic round played last Saturday, with two brilliant see sawing clashes between four of our better sides.

As a result of the win by the Eagles over the Mariners, we now have a new leader in the Eagles, who have pipped the (Leeming) Lions at the top of the table.

Only 1 point separates these two teams, who just happen to play each other this coming Saturday.

The Millers have snatched 3rd place from the Reds, the Reds now 3.5 points in front of the ailing Kats.

Wayne Heldt and his rink of young Jason Titheridge, Steve Lambert and John Andrew occupy top spot on the playing ladder, but they are closely followed by Vandersluys, Hall and Florance, with a host of other good Skips not far behind.

Notice my surname was spelled incorrectly

That’s the second time I’ve been called ‘young’ in a Bowls 360 report, after the South Perth game back in Round 5, when I was described by Southern Star as a “Great young lead” after our rink won by 16 shots and carried the aggregate, which turned out to be the start of our winning streak.

Then we get all the way down to the Manning vs Fremantle report, and for context to the opening line, Mike Carey’s rink lost 5-30 against Tony ‘Crackerjack’ Krajancik (They were 2-30 down after 19 ends), and somehow we still found a way to win overall and get 6 points out of 8, thanks in part to our 25-11 win.

When one rink wins by 25 shots, and another rink also wins, you would think that this would seal an aggregate win. But no, the Mariners catapulted to a slightly superior Eagles sixteen down at a windy Freo. The Mariners are slowly digging their own grave, unfortunately for them.

Tony Krajancik skipped his rink to a massive 25 shot win over the affable Mike Carey, but that wasn’t enough.

Wayne Heldt, who is having a very good year, touched up Peter Holmes by 15 shots, a massive loss in the context of the game.

Young Titheradge led this rink well, ably assisted by the likeable veteran John Andrew.

My information tells me that green was superbly prepared by Jeff Hall, who did win over young Adams. Murray Piggott was superb as the Skip, in beating the well credentialed Peter Wachmer, to seal the win for the cock a hoop visiting Eagles.

A great win to the Eagles, who now fly atop the ladder, the Mariners only just in front of the Ravens now.

I enjoy 2 things about that sentence:

1) I like how the author mentions myself being ably assisted by JA, and somehow Steve Lambert doesn’t even rate a mention, despite (In my opinion) playing better than I did

And

2) If leading well means not putting the jack in the ditch or out of bounds 3 times a game, and not sending the jack 2 metres past where Heldty wants it every end, then yes, I led very well.

So this was the tale of the tape, and despite losing 30-5, Carey’s crew holding 3 in the last 2 ends helped save us, because our rink lost shot on the last 2 ends, while Brett Adams’ four held 1 on the last end against Jeff Hall (Despite Freo’s second signalling they were 2 up), then with the aggregate tied, Murray Piggott’s four picked up 4 on the last end to seal the win.

And coming up this week, we’ve got Leeming away on the slow Synthetic in a game to decide top spot in 1 Blue South, where there is no such thing as an easy day out.

However, in conclusion, I shall now be using this fabled clip from Anchorman every time I show someone that article