A case of life imitating live television – During the Bowls Premier League in Brisbane last Wednesday (It was the 1st End of the 2nd Set of Tweed Heads vs Gold Coast), there was an end in which the teams had a three-way toucher, resulting in a no-score end (Or a drawn end, whatever you like to call it) as per the laws of the game:

Not even 24 hours later, on the other side of the continent, Manning’s Thursday second unit, managed by JT, went to South Perth to play their second unit (Who are also in Thursday Premier League), and on our 19th End (With Manning ahead 18-7), our skip Wayne Heldt had played an upshot through the head to go from 1 down to 2 up and a measure for 3rd – Even with South Perth’s closest bowl being a mere foot away.

By the way, what a great head – 10 bowls within 2 feet of the jack.

Next, South Perth’s skip Bruce Clarke, hailing from the Wheatbelt town of Goomalling, came through with weight on the wide hand and managed to clip the white bowl of Mark Ellis (Manning) on to my green & yellow bowl, which had the effect of moving both bowls and the jack back to the big red South Perth bowl, and before you knew it…

WE HAD THE EXACT SAME THING – A THREE-WAY TOUCHER!

As soon as Bruce saw what was going on, he decided not to play his last bowl and took the no score, for the simple fact that if he hit the holders, the South Perth bowl was going out (And potentially the red bowl on the right as well) and they’d go down a minimum of 3, which was also quite smart given the aggregate was only decided by a handful of shots.

That also brought up another milestone, the first time I’ve ever had a no-score end in a pennant game.

For the record, ‘we’ won the rink 22-7 (Could easily have won by 25+ shots were it not for Bruce’s draw bowling), but South Perth won the aggregate 60-55 thanks to a pair of 5s on the other rinks in the closing ends that broke our backs chasing shots.

But yes, Bowls Premier League, eat your heart out.