Follow Manning Jack Attack and the Manning Eagles on Facebook

On the last Wednesday of Summer, it was Welcome Fours eve at Manning, and the Welcome Fours is the biggest annual event at the club in what is a spectacular showcase of country bowlers from all 3 corners of WA ahead of the start of Country Week bowls, and it was all hands on deck getting set up for a day that features 190+ bowlers using all 4 greens of the club (A total of 26 rinks), one of whom was none other than Manning Jack Attack’s co-founder Matthew Mitchell, who made a cameo appearance on Wednesday night, much to the delight of myself and Half Price.

However, putting all that aside, it was time for Week 4 of the Greatest Social Bowls Tournament Between Manning Road and the Canning River, and on the weather front it was pleasantly overcast, with temperatures hovering around 24 degrees with a slight south-easterly breeze, a far cry from the overly sunny conditions we’ve had of late, so fair to say the bowlers had no excuse.

The Spider Challenge

The video of the Week 4 Spider Challenge is here

Week 4 saw another ripsnorting edition of the Spider Challenge, and it was another edition with no touchers on the jack after some 70+ bowls, much like that fabled video with some 294,000 views, but there was controversy when one of the young Salty Bowls released his bowl some 15 seconds after the whistle and whacked the shot bowl out to try and claim the win for himself…

But he was unaware that Half Price’s rule for the Spider is that bowlers have no longer than 5 seconds after the whistle to deliver the bowl, whereas the footage will show the offending bowl was delivered some 15 seconds after the whistle, a clear breach of the rules, and after going to the 3rd Umpire, the bowl was excluded from the results:

Funnily enough, Alex from Baby Got Jack ran up to myself and wanted to go straight to the DRS, but this was a decision that even Joel Wilson couldn’t stuff up, so the win was restored to Andrew from Sausage Bowls, with the runner-up spot going to Nikki from Bowl Movements:

Unfortunately for the young fellas, to quote Casey Stoner, your ambition outweighed your talent.

The Overall Night

With the race for the Top 6 not getting any easier, it was another competitive night for results, with 4 tiebreaks and 2 drawn sets, and 3rd all the way through to 10th on the ladder are still split by no more than 2 points, although there is a 3-point gap between 2nd and 3rd, which at this stage of the season is rather large, with only 1 game to go before the Week 6 finals.

Starting off the top with scenes that could barely be believed, the overall winners for Week 4 were B Cups 1, who recorded a 23-shot victory (13-0 12-2) against the Salty Bowls on Synthetic Rink 2, and of course the one week that Alison wasn’t here to look after the kitchen, her sister Sharyn and the softball ladies struck gold and got in the money for the first time in living memory, a result that was more of a shock to Sharyn than anybody else.

I did tell Allison last week that B Cups don’t win… considering both the B Cups won this week, it seems I have to correct myself that B Cups only win when Alison isn’t there.

2nd and 3rd went to a shots held countback after 2 teams finished on +19 shots with 8 ends won, but after the score check, 2nd went to Manning Up, who held 24 shots in their straight sets win against the Unbelievabowls on Synthetic Rink 4, a game that did serve as a contest between 2nd and 4th on the ladder, but Manning Up were unbelievabowly good once again, nailing both their bookended powerplays to race away with a 15-4 9-1 win, which included 4 ends of at least 4 shots, and I’d have to go back through the records to double check, but it seems Manning Up’s +67 shots is an all-time record for variance by a team throughout a season, let alone 4 games.

So the consolation of 3rd prize went to Rock N Bowl, who continue to Rock N Roll their way up the ladder with a straight sets thumping of Los Jackobitas on the outer extremities of Grass Rink 5, only conceding all of 2 shots for the night (14-1 7-1), giving Belinda’s team both 3rd on the night and 3rd on the ladder at the head of the 12-point peloton, while the Scottish Colombians seemingly have a worse percentage than the 1996 Fitzroy Football Club, although they have won more games than that Fitzroy team.

Finishing off the results for Week 4:

Bowl Movements retained top spot on the ladder with a straight sets win against Rip It Up on Synthetic Rink 6, with 2 final end power plays for Bowl Movements being the difference between the teams in a game that was a close low-scoring contest for the most part, as Rip It Up produced another honourable loss against a decent team, and with their latest full haul of points, Bowl Movements are a full 4 points clear of Rock N Bowl, so barring a Hindenburg style disaster in Week 5, then they’ll be appearing in another Summer Grand Final.

There is also some history in that win, as Bowl Movements are the first team since Pirates on the Green in Summer 2017 to record a perfect 16 points through Week 4, although there are two factors to be considered in that record, the first being that tiebreak wins were awarded 2 points until Summer 2020, when Todd’s protest was upheld and we cut it back to 1 point for a tiebreak, and Bowl Movements did have a walkover win in Week 1.

The winner of the Ebowla Bad, Ibowla Good vs Buffed Helmets contest on Synthetic Rink 1 was going to end the night in a decent spot on the ladder, and to the surprise of a few, it was EBIG who ran away with a superb win against the Buffs, coming back to draw the 1st Set 4/4 thanks to a last end powerplay, and after that they ran away with the game with a devastating 3-end burst of 5 shots to begin the set, followed by 1 and 3 shots without even needing to use the powerplay, and when the Buffs only got the minimum result on their powerplay to make it 2-9, the game was done and EBIG moved into 4th spot on the ladder, while the Buffs dropped down to 9th.

It was also well-noted that Wednesday night was Carmo’s first appearance of this season for the Buffed Helmets, and it was well worth the wait as he came off the bench and put his first 2 bowls in the ditch with his ballerina stance.

The first of our derbies on Wednesday night had Macatac playing against Sausage Bowls on Synthetic Rink 7, with the Sausages having thus far upstaged the more credentialed Macatac team, but the Sausages had lost Trudy for the night, and the loss of the team lynchpin showed early on in the 1st Set as Macatac held 4 on their powerplay to lead 11-1 with an end to go, an ALMOST impossible deficit to come back from…

However, with the power play in hand, the Sausage Bowls held 5 on their own powerplay to draw the set 11-11, one of the wilder form reversals ever seen, but that was to be the only miracle the Sausages could pull off, as Macatac kept up their good play and won the 2nd Set and the game 8-2, although the Sausage Bowls did managed to stay ahead of Macatac on the ladder on variance, with the teams sitting in 7th and 8th on 11 points.

The other derby on the night was the inaugural contest between Crawshaw CC and the Rarebirdies, a contest that pitted the neighbours of Crawshaw against their neighbour and former teammate Peter Bowen, with Wilko from Crawshaw setting up the grudge match by burning a stake out the front of Peter’s house before the game, and when the game began it was Crawshaw who started like a house on fire, winning the 1st Set with a 10-0 shutout, but then, another inexplicable moment occurred, as Graeme heard the whistle to give away the next toucher voucher and thought it was the signal to go to the bar, prompting half the Crawshaw team to disappear when they were supposed to set the end, leaving Wilko to go and lead, and from there the Rarebirdies got all the momentum and went on to lead 10-0 after 4 ends of the 2nd Set, but Crawshaw did win the last end to make it a 10-2 2nd Set and get the mat for the tiebreak…

Then, in an appropriate end to the grudge match, it would be decided by a straight shootout between Wilko and Peter to decide the game, and it was Wilko who looked to have struck the decisive blow when he played a bomb and landed a resting toucher on the jack, but Peter was not to be denied, and with the last bowl of the game, sat Wilko out clean as a whistle and made 2 shots to win the game, and the two neighbours shook hands and acknowledged a top notch contest.

As a consequence of his drinking mutiny and a wrong bias fine, Wilko has since asked other teams if they’d be open to accepting Graeme in a trade, with one his legs being optional.

Completing a great night for the softball ladies, B Cups 2 joined B Cups 1 with their own straight sets win against the Top Shots on Grass Rink 4, winning the 1st Set 6-4, then the game ended with another epic powerplay swing, as the Top Shots played the powerplay on the 4th End of the 2nd Set and held 3 to go from 1-4 down to 7-4 up….

But Lisa and the B Cups exchanged an eye for an eye and deployed their powerplay on the last end, going on to hold 3 and win the set and the game 10-7, with those 4 points all but ensuring both B Cups teams will be avoiding the dreaded wooden spoon game as they comfortably sit in the midfield, a situation that can’t be said for the Top Shots, who haven’t scored a point since Week 1 and are now down in 23rd position.

The Great Bowls of Fire are right in the mix for a Top 4 spot thanks to their straight sets win against the Jack A Hacks on Grass Rink 1, as the floating Hacks had another all-new lineup this week, with Kevin (Loaned from Macatac) our resident floater Greg (Who has joined Como with the aim to play pennants) alongside Di Mac in place of Duncan, while the Great Bowls regained Paul Alphabet after Todd’s attempt at a trade last week was vetoed by the committee, so the Greek Freak was back in the team, a decision that would pay dividends on the final end, as the Great Bowls won the 1st Set 8-4 by holding the last 2 ends, only to find themselves down 0-5 after 3 ends of the 2nd Set, then they gave themselves a live chance by holding 2 on the 4th End powerplay to cut the score to 4-5…

Then when the whips were cracking, Paul Alphabet stuck it right up Todd and plonked 2 bowls within a foot of the jack on a slow green, and they both stayed until the end as the Great Bowls won the set 6-5, claiming all 4 points to jump into 5th place on the ladder.

The Bowled Guys are right behind their Great Bowls brother team as they won a tough contest against the Shapes on Grass Rink 2, and the game kicked off with the Shapes leading 5-1 after 4 ends, but the Bowled Guys retained the powerplay until the final end, and at one stage the Bowled Guys were holding game, only for incumbent Mitchell Trophy winner Craig to play what was a fairly crap drive that cut right into a shot bowl and hit it in for 2nd shot to save the set, but Loose Bruce and the team (Peter the Wiseman was also with him) were not to be denied, even as Jason had to go home early and Bruce’s brother Craig came straight off FIFO and replaced him on short notice, and the Bowled Guys went on to win the 2nd Set 6-3, and held on to win the tiebreak as Craig from the Shapes shaved the jack by what could be best described as a bee’s diaphragm.

The Bowled Guys are now 6th, while that defeat puts the Shapes out of Top 6 contention as their title defence joins the Titanic on the bottom of the ocean floor.

Baby Got Jack were another team caught up in a thriller, this one against the Blue Bowls on Grass Rink 3, as they won the 1st Set 5-2 and looked relatively comfortable, but the Blue Bowls gave Alex the itch and streaked away to win the 2nd Set with an 11-0 shutout to set up the tiebreak, then Baby Got Jack once again set themselves up beautifully and held 3, then a booming drive from Brad cleaned out all 3 bowls and had the Blue Bowls holding shot, but Richie from Baby Got Jack had the last laugh and responded with a well-executed runner of his own and cleaned out the shot bowl to take the win, despite losing the variance by 8 shots.

And lucky last for this week, The Bowling Stones and Verse 1 faced off in a clash of the winless teams on Synthetic Rink 3, with Tiffany having deserted the Stones by ferrying off to Rottnest Island ahead of the long weekend in WA, and the high stakes game would be decided with a tiebreak as the Stones won the 1st Set 8-2, but Verse 1 smuggled in the 2nd Set 4-3 by holding 2 on the last end, and in that tiebreak, the Stones had the shot with a decent bowl from Sarah, but Mick from Verse 1 played the shot of the game and came through with a metre of weight and sat the bowl out clean as a whistle, coming to rest jack high a foot away, and the Stones couldn’t get it out, ensuring Verse 1 claimed their first outright win since Week 2 of last season, getting them out of danger of the wooden spoon game for now.

An unfortunate result for the Stones, who are still up in 14th despite not winning a game, having lost 3 tiebreaks out of 4 games, making them a shoe-in for the Merv Roberts World’s Unluckiest Bowlers Award, which will be present by Merv via satellite from Vietnam.

Results

Synthetic 1: Ebowla Bad, Ibowla Good (3pts +6) defeated Buffed Helmets (1pt -6), 4/4 9/3

Synthetic 2: B Cups 1 (4pts +23) defeated Salty Bowls, 13/0 12/2

Synthetic 3: Verse 1 (3pts -5) defeated Bowling Stones (2pts +5), 2/8, 4/3 2/0 in the tiebreak

Synthetic 4: Manning Up (4pts +19) defeated Unbelievabowls, 15/4 9/1

Synthetic 5: Rarebirdies (3pts -2) defeated Crawshaw CC (2pts +2), 0/10 10/2 2/0 in the tiebreak

Synthetic 6: Bowl Movements (4pts +8) defeated Rip It Up, 4/2 8/2

Synthetic 7: Macatac (3pts +6) defeated Sausage Bowls (1pt -6), 11/11 8/2

Grass 1: Great Bowls of Fire (4pts +5) defeated Jack A Hacks, 8/4 6/5

Grass 2: Bowled Guys (3pts +1) defeated Shapes (2pts -1), 3/5 6/3 1/0 in the tiebreak

Grass 3: Baby Got Jack (3pts -8) defeated Blue Bowls (2pts +8), 5/2 0/11 1/0 in the tiebreak

Grass 4: B Cups 2 (4pts +5) defeated Top Shots, 6/4 10/7

Grass 5: Rock N Bowls (4pts +19) defeated Los Jackobitas, 14/1 7/1

Ladder

Captain’s Comments

Wilko, Crawshaw CC: “Peter’s going to have to walk home, he can’t fit his head in the car after this result!”

“Graeme thought when Pricey blew the whistle it’s time for a drink break, so we had 2 blokes go to the bar and I had to play lead… we were 10-0 ahead by that point, then we went 0-10 down next set and lost the tiebreak… I think we’ve now got a one-legged bowler for sale.”

Sharyn, B Cups 1: “We finally get in the money and my sister isn’t here… don’t worry, we’re shocked as well”

Carry, Buffed Helmets: “We gave Carmo a run and he didn’t let us down… 2 bowls straight in the ditch”

Todd, Great Bowls of Fire: “I’m glad the Great Bowls committee vetoed my trade of Paul Alphabet, he stood up at the best moment.”

Bruce, Bowled Guys: “Thanks to Paul (the Wiseman) for his minutes of experience, he’s still never lost a Jack Attack game, while Craig came straight off the FIFO plane and helped out after Jason rushed home to look after sick kids.”

John, Manning Up: “Another tremendous game, but we played the big ends a bit better than they did.”

Brad, Rip It Up: “Honourable loss to the top team.”