Follow Manning Jack Attack and the Manning Eagles on Facebook

With a nice old heatwave striking Perth it was time for Week 3 and the halfway stage of Manning Jack Attack, the Greatest Social Bowls Tournament between Manning Road and the Canning River, and just to give you an idea of the weather we’ve been dealing with, Thursday pennants had already been called off due to a forecast top of 40 degrees, Wednesday hit 38 degrees in the late afternoon, even with an Easterly breeze, there’s bushfires in the northern suburbs, and even the emergency helicopters had a fly over as they headed south to fight another blaze:

Actually, that had nothing to do with fires, they were just heading to Dunsborough to drown the reptiles at schoolies.

Fair to say these were some of the toughest conditions you could face, especially after last week’s howling Easterly, but the positive was due to the lack of humidity, the green conditions were still quite good thanks to the lack of dew in the grass…

Unlike in Ahmedabad, where the dew would result in India receiving a kick in the Head by the Australians.

The Overall Night

Looking at the results, it was another hard-fought night across the 13 games, with 8 games going to tiebreaks and 1 game having a drawn set, and even with only 4 teams getting all 4 points, 2 of them still didn’t get in the money….

And if that wasn’t enough, there’s now a 5-way logjam of teams on 10 points on the ladder!

Starting off the top, the overall winners for the night were Rock N Bowl, who racked up a +15 shot victory on the CDs on Synthetic Rink 1, which was almost entirely made up of a 1st Set powerplay hold of 5 (10) to the victors, and I would also note that Rock N Bowl were initially announced as being on +19 shots, but a scorecard check showed that their variance was +15, due to Pricey mis-reading the final end of the 2nd Set on the losers scorecard, but Belinda, Di and Cam were still easily in for 1st place on the night.

On another note, Helen’s performance as drinks runner for the CDs may be sub-standard, but bowls-wise she’s managed to debut in the almighty Manning Tuesday Premier League team this week (They won convincingly at Mundaring), making her the second player in history to start out at Manning Jack Attack and play Premier League bowls… yours truly being the first.

2nd overall went to the Bowled Guys, who finished 12 shots up on the formerly unbeaten Unbelievabowls thanks to a 14-0 walloping in the 1st Set, but even still the lopsided game went to a tiebreak thanks to the Unbelievabowls holding 5 in the 2nd Set to win it 6-4, but come the tiebreak, none of the ladies seemed to want to play the one-end decider…

And it showed, as the Unbelievabowls didn’t get one bowl within 3 metres and the Bowled Guys appeared to hold 5, despite not having any bowls within a metre themselves, but given tiebreaks don’t count on variance, they settled on 2 and called it a day.

3rd Place overall went to one of our new teams, Salty Bowls 2, who finished +9 shots ahead of Crawshaw Crisis Committee on Grass Rink 1, which didn’t suffer as badly as the other rinks due to being covered by the side ditch, and Crawshaw won the 1st Set 6-4, but the Salt Property team responded by thumping the Crawshaw residents 11-0 in the 2nd Set, and they went on to win the tiebreak when Malcolm missed trailing the jack by inches on the last bowl.

If you look in the paper on Friday, I’m dead certain I incorrectly announced 3rd place as being Salty Bowls 1, but Glen O’Brien collected the money on their behalf anyway, so I suspect it’s going towards the staff Christmas party….

Then again, the Buffed Helmets were also sitting on that table, so it probably went on the bar.

Finally, 4th place overall featured 2 teams on +6 shots, but there was no deep countback required with one team winning in a tiebreak and the other winning in straight sets, and that straight sets winner was Macatac 1 against the Buffed Helmets 2 out on Grass Rink 5, with both teams playing admirably while dealing with the full brunt of the wind for most of the night, in addition to the hot air coming out of Carmo’s mouth.

Finishing off the results for Week 3:

Stop Drop & Bowl and This Is How We Roll faced off in a Derby between the sister teams on Synthetic 1, and there was suspicion from the integrity police that the teams might collude to try and win the $40 for the biggest win the night, especially when Stop Drop & Bowl led 7-0 after 2 ends…

But all suspicions were quashed when This Is How We Roll came back and drew the 1st Set at 7 apiece, then the 2nd Set was another tough tussle which went the way of Stop Drop & Bowl 7-5, as competitive pride won out over attempted tanking, and that also means This Is How We Roll have now scored a point this year and are off the bottom of the ladder.

On Grass Rink 2, Fawesome and Verse 1 went to a tiebreak after splitting the sets with Verse 1 ahead by 2 on the variance (7-3 2-4), and with the wind still howling at 8pm, Verse 1 did more than enough and held 2 in the tiebreak (Dave whacked one of their bowls in for shot, which helped) to get the point for victory, a week after they got beaten so badly they gave money to the Unbelievabowls.

On Grass Rink 3, the Steam Rollers and the Bowl Movements had a tight tussle that saw a grand total of 16 shots across 10 ends, thanks to neither team landing any powerplays, but through it all the Steam Rollers managed to pull off a straight sets win (5-2 5-4), and it appeared Steph O’Brien seemed to be having a good time, especially after a successful toucher from Donna was followed by another bowl within 2 feet:

Amazingly enough, the Steam Rollers have taken advantage of the draw to sit in 5th and level on points with the leaders, which makes me suspect the handicapper is about to pay them a visit.

On Grass Rink 4, it was a case of Death, Taxes and Ten Pin going to a tiebreak, only this time they actually managed to win it against the other Salty Bowls team (Salty Bowls 1), and they also won it despite dropping the 2nd Set 13-4, after the Salties held a 4 on a powerplay to give them 8, which also totally reversed the 1st Set drubbing that was 8-1 to Ten Pin, but the most experienced team in Manning Jack Attack history won the final end and got their first win for the season.

On Synthetic Rink 2, the Buffed Helmets 1, which is the sloppy seconds of the Buffed Helmets crew, upstaged Manning Up in a tiebreak to deny them top spot on the ladder, thanks to a bowl from the returning Mazey that won the game (Must’ve been a pretty bad end for Mazey to hold shot), and Manning Up were lacking the organisational presence of team manager John, who is on the mend right now and had to miss a Wednesday night for the first time since he first entered teams under the names of Barking Owls way back in the Spring/Summer of 2019.

I briefly alluded to Buffed Helmets regular Mazey returning, well, he would’ve played in Week 1, only to suffer what could be best described as shagger’s back that put him out for several weeks.

On Synthetic Rink 4, the Bowling Stones are now up into the top half of the ladder thanks to their straight sets win against the Top Shots, thanks to saving their powerplays for the final end of both sets and holding on both of them (4-5 down to 6-5 in the 1st Set, and 2-3 down to 6-3 in the 2nd Set), and the poor old Top Shots are now the only team yet to win or draw a set this season, and if the Top Shots were a darts team, they wouldn’t have hit the board through 3 legs.

Hang on a minute, the Top Shots are a darts team.

On Synthetic Rink 5, we saw a quality game between Norfolk Enchants and the Great Bowls of Fire, as the Norfolk Islanders pitched a 10-0 shutout in the 1st Set, then Todd and the Great Bowls responded in the 2nd Set to win it 6-2, but were they going to win the tiebreak?

Norfolk Enchants they were!

In fact, with results going their way on Wednesday night, Quinny and the Norfolk Enchanters have jumped up from 4th to sit on top of the ladder after Week 3, in this their first crack at Manning Jack Attack.

On Synthetic Rink 6, the Jackson 3 finally got in the winners’ circle for this season by ending the unbeaten start for Ebowla Bad, Ibowla Good by winning the tiebreak and finishing ahead on variance, just the way Alex would like it, and I’ve noticed a pattern with the Jackson 3’s points tally; In Week 1 they scored 1 point, in Week 2 they scored 2 points, and in Week 3 they scored 3 points.

It seems the Jackson 5 were the right, ABC really is as easy as 1, 2, 3.

Still, the 2 points from the 2nd Set win has allowed Ebowla Bad, Ibowla Good to retain 2nd place on the ladder and stay right in the leading pack.

And the last game not previously mentioned was the contest in the Challenger Avenue carpark (Synthetic Rink 8) between Macatac 2 and the Shapes, which was the 8th and final tiebreak of the night, as the Shapes held on to win the 1st Set 7-6, and Craig and his team were up 3-2 with the final end to play in the 2nd Set, at which point the Macatac ladies played their powerplay and were holding 1 with Craig having last bowl…

And he only succeeded in slicing the jack over to the left to bring 2 more shots in, blowing the set out to an 8-3 Macatac win, and the ladies would seal the deal in the tiebreak, and those extra shots from that final bowl helped bump them up past the Unbelievabowls into 3rd place on the ladder!

What a disappointment for the Shapes, as the strong Easterly once again blew all the flavouring off their biscuits.

Results

Grass 1: Salty Bowls 2 (3pts +9) defeated Crawshaw CC (2pts -9), 4-6 11-0 2-0 in the tiebreak

Grass 2: Verse 1 (3pts +2) defeated Fawesome (2pts -2), 7-3 3-4 2-0 in the tiebreak

Grass 3: Steam Rollers (4pts +4) defeated Bowl Movements, 5-2 5-4

Grass 4: Ten Pin (3pts -2) defeated Salty Bowls 1 (2pts +2), 8-1 4-13 3-0 in the tiebreak

Grass 5: Macatac 1 (4pts +6) defeated Buffed Helmets 2, 7-4 8-5

Synthetic 1: Stop Drop & Bowl (3pts +2) defeated This Is How We Roll (1pt -2), 7-7 7-5

Synthetic 2: Buffed Helmets 1 (3pts +1) defeated Manning Up (2pts -1), 7-4 6-8 1-0 in the tiebreak

Synthetic 3: Rock N Bowl (4pts +15) defeated CDs, 14-1, 8-6

Synthetic 4: Bowling Stones (4pts +4) defeated Top Shots, 6-5 6-3

Synthetic 5: Norfolk Enchants (3pts +6) defeated Great Bowls of Fire (2pts -6), 10-0 2-6 2-0 in the tiebreak

Synthetic 6: The Jackson 3 (3pts +4) defeated Ebowla Bad, Ibowla Good (2pts -4), 8-2 4-6 1-0 in the tiebreak

Synthetic 7: Bowled Guys (3pts +12) defeated Unbelievabowls (2pts -12), 14-0 4-6 2-0 in the tiebreak

Synthetic 8: Macatac 2 (3pts +4) defeated Shapes (2pts -4), 6-7 8-3 1-0 in the tiebreak

Ladder

Captain’s Comments

Roving reporter Helen: “The Unbelievabowls go into a tiebreak against the Bowled Guys, they ask who’s playing… all you hear is I’m out, I’m out, I’m out.”

“This should tell you everything about this whole contest” – Mazey on getting shot in the tiebreak against Manning Up

Bruce, The Bowled Guys: “I’d like to thank the Academy…”

Simon, Manning Up: “John is on the mend right now and the weather was a bit much, so this was the first Wednesday night he’s missed in 4 years – Trav had to step up and be the manager with the scoresheet, the first time he’s ever done it, while we also missed Mark due him being on front and back end duties at home tonight, wielding a giant mop, and Brent showed up for all of 2 minutes and coughed up a lung while he was here.”