So on Saturday, the old crew of JT, Peter Ker (P Ker Boo), Blake/Candles and Cody/Pacman were back together on the same rink for the first time in a month, as Manning went to Bassendean with our Premier League season on the line in pursuit of the threepeat, after missing last week due to the heat rule kicking in…

And wanting a hot start, our rink promptly fell behind 0-11 after 4 ends against the makeshift team of Steve Jocelyn (Stevie J), Joe Krstic (aka Kristina’s dad), Bryan Roper and Lloyd McKay, after myself and PK simply couldn’t get enough bowls in the head and left our back end chasing their arses..

So we knuckled down and got it back to 7-11 down after 8 ends, then fell back to 7-16 after 11, as I proceeded to put no fewer than 5 out of 6 bowls in the drink on short ends (PK wasn’t that far behind), for the simple fact that Bassendean is renowned as one of the best grass greens in Australia, let alone Western Australia…

But somehow, on the 12th End, after I put another bowl in the drink, Cody called me to change hands and play wide with one in my road on the narrow forehand…

It finished up a resting toucher.

Nothing makes sense in this stupid game sometimes.

After that, I started getting my weights ‘better-er’ and got on top in the leads duel, and with our vaunted back end getting something to play with, we picked up 8 shots in 3 ends to get it back to 15-16 as Pacman grabbed the cherry a few times, then myself and PK promptly put in another shit front end performance and we dropped a 5 to go back down 15-21 after 15….

But it would be the last shots we dropped all day, as we dragged it back to tie the scores at 21 apiece after 19 ends, then the sucker punch was the 20th End when myself and PK got 4 bowls in the area, and Blake played a firecracker to trail the jack 2 feet straight on to the bowl to set up 4 shots, which we held to take our first lead of the game at 25-21 with an end to play:

More importantly, the aggregate was pretty much safe as we got the lead out to a fairly comfortable 10 shots with only a few ends to play, and we saw out our final by covering all bases and ensuring we were never going to give the 4 straight back, and ultimately held 3 to win 28-21, the finishing touch being Blake’s last resting toucher.

I can say that is the biggest comeback I’ve had in a pennant game (Then again I’ve only played 79 games), surpassing a comeback from 9-19 down against Forrestfield last season, and I’d say it was the best for the simple fact it was the big bad world of Saturday Premier League, our season was on the line, we were up Shit Creek no fewer than 3 times, but just kept on going and romped home like Kingston Town in 1982.

As I alluded to before, the more important part was the comeback steadied up the aggregate, because at the halfway stage it looked like we may let the boys down big time in a must-win aggregate with the other 3 rinks all in fairly tight arm wrestles, but once we got back within a few shots and the other rinks either won or drew (Lewis Grigg won 23-17 against Ruaryi Kenyon and Tom Mitchell drew 15-15 with Wayne Neilson), that pretty much sealed the agg for us…

And a hard fought win was made better when Shane Knott’s rink (Who were 4 ends behind the rest of us thanks to dead ends) also came from behind to win on the last end (17-18 to 20-18), their win being sealed by a stroke of cruel luck to Troy ‘Stretch’ Kinnane, who cleaned out Basso’s closest bowl on a drive and made a measure for 2 a certain 3 shots, meaning Knotty didn’t have to play his last bowl.

A great to get one back on Bassendean after they beat us pretty comfortably at home on the first Sunday in November…

Sadly, that’ll be the last time our awesome foursome plays together for at least a month, because we’ve got the State Singles bye next weekend, and after that either myself or Cody will be off in various parts of the universe at any given time over the next 3 weeks.

But, in conclusion, we’re only a game off the Top 4 now and right back in the hunt…

On to the final third of the season!