We’d been waiting 2 weeks for the 1 Blue Grand Final, but the Manning 1 Blue team, aka the 1 Blue Wrecking crew, have capped off our superb season that was already a success with the promotion to 1 White, with a PENNANT FLAG!

‘We’ won the Final 91 shots to 50 against Doubleview out at Thornlie, and it never really felt like a true contest as the Eagles were up by double figures pretty much from the word go, saving our most superb team effort for last on a Surface we were pretty familiar with, and eventually The View conceded after 80 ends played when they had no mathematical chance of winning.

Scores:

Wayne Heldt, Mark Ellis, Matt Hoskin & Jason Titheradge defeated Gary Nelson’s rink 29-10, as the No.1 Rink in 1 Blue South produced our magnum opus

Murray Piggott, Graham O’Brien, Steve Lambert & Jaxon Butler 28 defeated Brandon Heta’s rink 28-12, a superb performance from Murray’s four as Heta was the No.1 Skip in Blue North.

Allan Taylor, Shane Adams, Brett Adams & Phil Herbert 12 defeated by Lindsay Thorn’s rink 12-21 (Game finished after 20th End), the only blemish for Manning as they did trail a whopping 2-15 after 8 ends, but clawed back enough shots in the second half to ensure Doubleview’s hopes were dashed.

Mike Carey, Greg Hogg, Ron Ker & Adam Macpherson defeated Chris McKenna’s rink 22-7 (Game finished on 19th End)

The first meaningful thing I’ve won in bowls since the Summer 2019 Manning Jack Attack title, and it turns out to be a Division 1 Pennant… one of the best thrills I’ll ever have, and more than made up for missing out on the Club Novice Singles title last week.

It was the second part of an all-time great weekend for Manning, as the Saturday 1 Red Women’s team defeated North Beach in the Grand Final at Sorrento on Saturday afternoon to give the ladies both top grade (Tuesday Premier & Saturday 1 Red) pennants this season….

Then the Men’s Premier League team, who had been defeated by South Perth 68-75 on Saturday morning in the First Semi Final at Manning, then only just got over Doubleview 77-75 in an epic Preliminary Final, turned the screws on South Perth in a nailbiting Grand Final and defeated our arch-rivals for the second year running (78-71), handing the Millers their fourth Grand Final defeat in 5 years, despite playing on a synthetic, South Perth’s favourite surface.

Naturally, we had to take a group photo for both teams, and yes that is me with the Eagle head on:

And now here’s the masterpiece of both flags together:

Sunday capped off what may be the most successful season any club has ever had in Metro WA Pennants, with Manning winning 4 Division 1 flags in one year:

Women’s Tuesday Premier League for the ninth season running (Defeated North Beach 72 to 41)

Women’s Saturday Division 1 Red (Defeated North Beach 31 to 25)

Men’s Saturday 1 Blue (Defeated Doubleview 91 to 50)

Men’s Saturday Premier League (Defeated South Perth 78 to 71)

There have only been 5 instances in the 125 years of Metro WA Pennants that a club has won the Women’s Tuesday Premier League/1 Red title and the Men’s Saturday Premier League/1 Red title in the same season.

Manning has accounted for 4 of them in the space of 8 years (2015, 2017, 2022-23), and the other is South Perth in 1960.

What a ****in’ club.