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After surviving Week 2, we all meandered on through to the halfway stage of the Spring 2025 season of Manning Jack Attack, which served as a warm-up for the Buffed Helmets before they went to Perth Stadium on Friday for Day 1 of the Ashes Test and proceeded to down more beers than wickets fell (19), and we had more superb Wednesday night weather, which did look a bit iffy in the morning considering there were warnings for thunderstorms across the metro area on Wednesday afternoon, but they never got to Manning and we continued as normal, kicking off at the revised 6:15pm start time…

Thankfully, most people got that piece of news, while some rinks were waiting that long to get a drink that they started at 6:30 anyway.

The Overall Night

Results wise, the handicappers appeared to do their job this week as the score variances were much tighter than last week, with the greatest margins only being +10 shots, while Wednesday night was a historic first for our makeshift 3-team round robin format, as it marked the first time all 7 rink winners had won both games.

Starting off the top, we did originally announce the Week 3 winners as Shapes with 2 wins and +12 shots, only for Tristan from the Shapes to point out they only got to +8 shots (Winning 8-6 against B Cups 1 and 10-4 against the Bowling Stones), and we worked out that Half Price had given Shapes the score from the Bowling Stones vs B Cups 1 game (Which the Stones won 8-2), which got them to +12.

After mulling with several ideas, Half Price ultimately decided to spread the $40 across the four teams in 2nd through to 5th, and by a mild coincidence Shapes finished 5th on the night, ahead of Manning Up on an ends countback.

So that meant the overall winners of Week 3 (After an ends countback) were Jackarena, news that will come as a shock to Alex as he was so delighted that they’d finished 2nd on the night after labouring through the first 2 weeks, and they’ve now shot up to 6th on the ladder.

Jackarena got the bonus point for their performances on Rink 2, playing first up and defeating the shorthanded Ten Pin 6-3, Ten Pin (Who were without Coral due to a hospital visit) stayed out and defeated the Bowled Guys 7-3 in the second game, then Alex and the team finished off a good night with a 7-0 shutout of the Bowled Guys, which had them on +10 shots and forced a countback with Rock N Bowl, but Jackarena got countback with 8 ends won against 7 across two games.

So 2nd overall went to the aforementioned Rock N Bowl, who were almost back to full strength with Belinda Mac returning from a visit to the great country of Europe, and they turned around last week’s whipping by posting two solid wins on Rink 6, first up defeating Crawshaw CC (2nd overall last week) 8-2, a game in which Todd from the Great Bowls of Fire played for Rock N Bowl to give them a third player, with Wilko getting distracted by thinking about life issues for blind people, then second up Rock N Bowl took on the Great Bowls (Who were 3rd after Week 2) and strangled them with a 6-2 win to seal the bonus point, leaving Crawshaw to play the Great Bowls in a consolation game, and it was a 2-2 arm wrestle with a double powerplay final end as Todd got the mat and got Jonesy to set up a long end… only for Jonesy and Paul Alphabet to put 4 bowls absolutely nowhere, and Crawshaw held 2 to make 4 and win it 6-2, sending the Great Bowls plummeting from 3rd down to 10th on the ladder.

3rd overall went to the Top Shots for their performances on Rink 1, and I originally thought there was a typo in the scores because the Top Shots are typically on the receiving end of these big results, but it was real and spectacular, and it does mean the Top Shots won more games in one night than Gordon’s beloved Leeds United have won in the last 2 months.

One of the two resident Manning Darts teams went double tops to claim the bonus point, winning 10-4 first up against Blue Bowls in a game that was 4-4 going down to the last end before the Top Shots made 6 on a powerplay, then they wrapped up the bonus point in the second game with a 6-3 win against Rip It Up to finish on +9 shots, while the Blue Bowls (With Blair and Brad joined by Nathan on debut) won the consolation game against Rip It Up 8-6, which leaves Rip It Up as the only team without a win this season.

4th overall went to the Brady Bunch Buffed Helmets, who were also on +9 shots but missed out on the Top 3 on the ends won countback (the Top Shots won 7 ends against 6), but regardless the Buffs won Rink 4 and picked up another 5 points to climb to 2nd on the ladder, sitting out the first game in which Pepperjack Attack took care of B Cups 1 7-1, then the Buffs came on to reverse the result on Mick, Peg, Sally and Ronni with a 7-1 win of their own, then the final game against the B Cups featured a mighty comeback from the Buffs, who trailed the softball ladies 0-5 after 3 ends, then got on the scoreboard by drawing 2 shots close to the ditch to claim the mat for the final end, in which the Buffs produced one of the more effective uses of the powerplay, getting bowls in the head and going on to produce a 6 and win the game 8-5.

Finishing off the results for Week 3:

As previously mentioned, Shapes were in 5th on the night, but more importantly retained top spot on the ladder by taking the bonus point for Rink 7, watching the first game as the Bowling Stones defeated B Cups 1 8-2, then Shapes were made to earn it against the B Cups in the second game, as they led 6-0 after 2 ends, then B Cups came back to tie the game 6-6 with an end to play after young Lachie delivered a few bullets, but the Shapes had the powerplay and they had last bowl, and would get the shot to win 8-6, setting up a winner take all game against the Bowling Stones, a game that was also a rematch of the last Spring Grand Final, and this game would ultimately have the same result as the Shapes overcame an early 0-4 deficit to race away with a 10-4 win, capped off by shutting down the Stones on their own final end powerplay and holding 4 themselves, moving them to 14 points out of a possible 15 this season, while the Stones are still around the mark in 5th spot.

Perhaps the highlight of that final game was when the Shapes were holding 3 shots on a powerplay on the third end, only for Tiff to get a friendly rub and draw the shot, to which Peter told Craig to go at the bowl… Craig proceeded to play a drive, in which he more or less shanked it, proceeded to hit the same bowl that Tiff had moved a minute previous and cannoned onto the shot bowl to clean it out, giving the Shapes 2 turned into 4.

Manning Up continued their march up the ladder by claiming the bonus point for Rink 3, which began with Ebowla Bad, Ibowla Good delivering a 13-1 hammering of Sausage Bowls, who were in 2nd on the ladder after Week 2, then Manning Up came on and joined in the group drying of Sausage Bowls by defeating them 9-4, set up by holding 8 on a first end powerplay to send Sausage Bowls plummeting from 2nd down to 9th, then the winner take all game against EBIG was an arm wrestle with a total of 7 shots in 5 ends, with the only ends with multiple shots coming on the powerplays for both teams, and ultimately Manning Up went on to win it 5-2 to seal the rink victory, and after going winless in Week 1, the defending champs are now into 4th with the best shot variance of any team.

And finally, Norfolk Enchants won the bonus point for Rink 5, which began with the young Salty Bowls team breaking through for a long overdue Jack Attack win by defeating the Unbelievabowls 11-4, vaulting the Salties off the bottom of the ladder after being arc welded to it for the last year, then Norfolk came on to play the Unbelievabowls in the second game, going on to win 6-4 thanks to holding 5 on the third end, which set up a winner take all game between Salty Bowls and Norfolk, and it was another tough arm wrestle between two teams with a superb chance to get a rare rink victory, with the teams trading singles through the first 4 ends, which set up what was a bit of a wasted double powerplay final end, with Norfolk striking first as Guy landed a toucher, with El Chappo making it 2, so the Salties naturally went for 2 drives, taking the second shot out on the first bowl, which also left Salty Bowls with the second shot and a chance to win if they got the shot bowl out clean…

But they missed, and the Norfolk Islanders won 4-2, vaulting well clear of the bottom four.

So looking at when the rink winners played this week, 2 teams played the first and second games (Top Shots and Rock N Bowl), 4 teams played the second and third games (Manning Up, Buffed Helmets, Norfolk Enchants and Shapes), and one team played the first and third games, which just happened to be the overall winner Jackarena.

Results

Rink 1 (won by Top Shots): Top Shots defeated Blue Bowls 10-4, Top Shots defeated Rip It Up 6-3, Blue Bowls defeated Rip It Up 8-6

Rink 2 (won by Jackarena): Jackarena defeated Ten Pin 6-3, Ten Pin defeated Bowled Guys 7-3, Jackarena defeated Bowled Guys 7-0

Rink 3 (won by Manning Up): Ebowla Bad, Ibowla Good defeated Sausage Bowls 13-1, Manning Up defeated Sausage Bowls 9-4, Manning Up defeated Ebowla Bad, Ibowla Good 5-2

Rink 4 (won by Buffed Helmets): Pepperjack Attack defeated B Cups 2 7-1, Buffed Helmets defeated Pepperjack Attack 7-1, Buffed Helmets defeated B Cups 2 8-5

Rink 5 (won by Norfolk Enchants): Salty Bowls defeated Unbelievabowls 11-4, Norfolk Enchants defeated Unbelievabowls 6-4, Norfolk Enchants defeated Salty Bowls 4-2

Rink 6 (won by Rock N Bowl): Rock N Bowl defeated Crawshaw CC 8-2, Rock N Bowl defeated Great Bowls of Fire 6-2, Crawshaw CC defeated Great Bowls of Fire 6-2

Rink 7 (won by Shapes): Bowling Stones defeated B Cups 1 8-2, Shapes defeated B Cups 1 8-6, Shapes defeated Bowling Stones 10-4

Ladder

Captain’s Comments

Scotty, Buffed Helmets: “My beloved first generation Ford Falcon Ellie got totalled in a car crash this week, but it still wasn’t as big of a car crash as Carmo’s captaincy of the Buffed Helmets.”

Wilko, Crawshaw: “How does a blind man know when to wipe his backside… see, these are the kinds of things that keep me up at night JT.”

Alex, Jackarena: “Look what happens when all 3 of us turn up.”

Ben, Ebowla Bad, Ibowla Good: “Forget about 50 Cent, Xavier is now 50 Per Cent”

Todd, Great Bowls of Fire: “First successful whinge of the season… asked Pricey if we could play the first game the next 2 weeks and he said yes.”

Bruce, Bowled Guys: “Should’ve done a lot better as we lost both games… I’m done whinging about the bonus point anymore because we haven’t got any chance of featuring in the wash up.”

Carry, Buffed Helmets: “I hate unconsistency… is that even a word?”

Coopes, Rip It Up: “Our strategy is very good until we get to powerplays and forget how to play”