Manning 87 (7) defeated Joondalup 61 (1) at Manning Memorial

Rink Scores (Home Team First):

Shane Knott/Mark Wunnenberg/Andy Lill/Joe Angel 27 defeated Ben Leggett/Pat Daley/Paul Kain/Wade Clatworthy 12

Tom Mitchell/Nathan Jones/Brad Hogg/Miles Kemp 16 defeated by Chris Leggett/James Groves/Tom Vlahos/Cam Bell 21

Cody Packer/Blake Butler/Peter Ker/Jason Titheradge 23 defeated Stein Davies/Jon Hunter/John Carrigan/Frank Tyson 16

Lewis Grigg/David Downey/Scott O’Brien/Jaxon Butler 21 defeated Wes Neilson/Simon Deering/Michael Korycin/Martin Cheesman 12

As for the afternoon, it was a hard-fought 1st Half as Premier League debutants Joondalup came out swinging trying to prove something against the 2-time champs, and it was 2 ends across 2 rinks that turned the game for good:

The first came on the 11th End of our rink (Cody Packer vs Stein Davies) with us leading 13-10 after dropping a 3, with Cody on the mat having the last bowl, down 7 after cruelly plucking 2 of our own bowls out on a luckless drive when we were ‘only’ 3 down, and he was largely seeking to rectify and draw 2nd shot, seeing as there was only a foot and a half of room between the holder and jack…

At which point time Stein said something to his team about Cody’s arse, which I can’t quite repeat in full, but regardless immediately backfired on him when Cody drew shot, and he was rather fired up about it.

The second and final nail came 15 minutes later in the game between Shane Knott and Ben Leggett, with the game sitting 11-10 in Knotty’s favour after 14 ends, and Knotty had last bowl with Leggett’s team holding shot, surrounded by 6 second shots to Manning.

Knotty only had 1 shot in mind, and that was to crack the holder out by any means necessary, which would ultimately come in a form a perfectly executed sit and stay, as Knotty got the holder right in the guts, sending it 3 metres back, his own bowl staying in the count and giving a lazy 7 shots to Manning.

Knotty’s team rolled on from there and won 27-12, finishing as the biggest winning rink for any Manning pennant team that Saturday (That’s 23 rinks across 6 Divisions) to claim the pot vouchers.

All in all, a good day for Manning, one that we needed after losing 2 aggregates in a row and getting a mere 1.5 points from them.