So in yesterday’s edition of Midweek Premier League South, the Manning 1 team had 4 players missing (AJ Heal, Billy Fraser, Brad Hogg & Joe Angel), so the selectors had to call in Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders, namely yours truly from the Manning 2 team, in addition to Blake Butler and Scott O’Brien from the Saturday Premier team (Two very handy players to make cameo appearances), and what would turn out to be Greg Hogg, first up from a 6-week layoff with his new titanium hip.

As it happened, half of Sam Perica’s rink (Brad & Joe) were out, so it wound up being myself and Greg front ending for Sam, with Paul Smith playing third, which meant we had 3/4 of our State Fours quarter final rink together again (Mick Marovic plays at Stirling), and prior to Thursday, the regular combination only had 2 rink wins in 8 games…

1 of them was the other time Greg filled in for Brad.

However, on this fine day against Gosnells at Manning, it was a walloping for the ages across the board, as Manning won the aggregate by 67 shots, almost unheard of for a 3-rink aggregate in the top division, and on Rink 2, Perica and friends went on to win…

39-5.

If I look up my spreadsheet, my previous biggest rink win was the 31-5 win in the Friday night game at Mt Lawley in November, which to me still is my holy grail of personal performances (Due to sheer consistency), but 34 shots is a next level bashing.

For some further context, Gosnells’ skip Frank Carbone was a stalwart at Manning not even 9 years ago and played in the club’s maiden Saturday Premier League title with Hoggy, before he moved back to Gosnells a few years later, and the last time I ventured to Gosnells (December 1, 2022) with a depleted second team, we took on Frank’s rink…

In what could be described as an arse kicking, we dropped 6 on the first end and ultimately lost 7-32, I got dropped the next week, then a few months later we lost the rematch at Manning 13-23 in February.

This time around, it was just an all-round superb team performance, as myself and Greg pretty much always had multiple bowls in the head before Paul and Sam had even set foot on the mat, allowing them to play with a freedom that all back enders dream of, and ultimately 3 out of Gossie’s 5 shots were from Frank having to draw down multiples, one of which was on the last end to stop us from reaching 40 shots.

Completing the scores, Darrel Hudson’s rink (With Scotty playing third alongside Floppy Herbert and Nigel) ‘only’ won 28-14 after kicking clear in the final ends and David Cliff’s rink (With Blake playing third in place of AJ Heal) won 30-11.

If you score 97 shots on 4 rinks on a Saturday you’ve probably had a decent 20+ shot win in the aggregate…

In a 3-rink Thursday competition, it’s the sporting equivalent of an atomic bombing.

What this all means on the ladder is that the Manning 1 team, after being 8th at Christmas, are now top of the ladder on percentage thanks to picking up 11 points out of 12 in 2 games, while the Manning 2 team, who were on top at Christmas with me as team manager, are now 6th after picking up half a point in 2 games, which came in the belting at Safety Bay on Thursday.

That’s just the effect I have on old people.

Another mere coincidence is that the bookies have slashed my odds of winning Section 11 in the State Singles at Thornlie (Where I got drawn against Thornlie’s top skip Eddie Gollan), because on Thursday night my chances were at 14.8%…

On Friday morning, they were 19.4%.

If you want a comparison, our team in the State Fours got given a 15.49% chance of winning the section, because absolutely nobody rated us… we got to the Quarters.