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After last week’s successful launch, we were on to Week 2 of the Summer 2026 season of Manning Jack Attack, and this week we were without a few noteworthy characters as our dear leader Richard ‘Half’ Price had already gone down to Busselton for yet another fishing misadventure with former Manning Primary headmaster Rob Searle, and the funny part is Pricey had actually left on Thursday, drove back to Perth for a 60th birthday on Saturday (Our Manning mate Graeme Watson), then drove back down on Sunday morning…

The International Minister for Leisure.

Still, we needed some high profile help to fill his shoes, and continuing on this theme of 10th Anniversary celebrations, this week our old mate and former Jack Attack coordinator AJ Heal came down to help me out in the absence of Half Price, and here’s a blast from the past – A photo of AJ doing the introduction to the Summer 2018 season (February 7, 2018), while obscuring Helen Heal:

And 8 years later, ‘The Moth’ was back in his element.

Hopefully in a few weeks we’ll have another 10th Anniversary cameo when Matthew Mitchell comes back for Country Week.

The Spider Challenge

The link to the replay

Week 2 marked the first of the Spider Challenges for Summer 2026, and our new teams had a brutal start to the great novelty challenge when big Macca (Who was filling on Pepperjack Attack and SUPPOSEDLY bowling left handed) decided to bowl right handed and fire a full blooded drive which got the jack square and shot it to the overflow carpark, which took out 98% of the field as they all aimed at the centre where I’d spotted the jack…

However, thanks to the magic of the VAR, Macca admitted he’d bowled right-handed and self-excluded himself as the winner, which gave the win to Gordon from the Top Shots and Peggy from Pepperjack Attack:

Of course, Macca disqualifies himself and gets one his makeshift teammates into the money.

The Overall Night

The Week 2 fixture had been drawn at the same time as the Week 1 fixture (On account of the aforementioned fishing trip for Half Price), so we did have a few cases of winners playing losers, which included the game that resulted in the biggest win of the night, but for the most part it was a fairly even night, and the end result is that all teams have now won at least a set through 2 games.

Starting off the top, the winners for Week 2 were Pepperjack Attack, who were armed with a left handed Macca (As verified by the BBC, CNN, AJ Heal and the ABC) in place of Rotten Ronni, and produced one of the biggest shutout wins in Manning Jack Attack history with a straight sets +27 shot victory against Crawshaw CC, which began with a 14-0 1st Set win, then a 13-0 2nd Set win to rocket the drunken Irish people into 2nd spot, as the Crawshaw residents were caught repeatedly trying to dispense with Wilko as team captain, in scenes akin to Ian Botham getting sacked as England captain during the 1981 Ashes series, but the difference is England actually got on the scoreboard after sacking Beefy…

In fact, after some protests from Crawshaw about Macca being allowed to play with his wrong hand, we have agreed to double Crawshaw’s score.

Finishing runner-up on the night with another big win in the quest for the Threepeat was Manning Up, who were handed a tough draw against Week 1 winners the Shapes, but the micromanagers devoured the Arnott’s tribute team with an almighty straight sets +20 shot win on Synthetic Rink 5, winning the 1st Set 13-0 and giving up just 1 end with an 8-1 in in the 2nd Set, which rocketed the micromanagers up to top spot after Week 2, while Shapes plummeted from 1st down to 15th after being subject to death by a thousand cuts…

A collapse to rival Ansett.

3rd overall went to the Jack Hughmans, who had their first taste of the grass against the Bowling Stones (Without Tiff to lead the way) as they played in the darkness of Rink 5, and while most teams attempt to pay Half Price to draw a synthetic rink, it appears Norm and his team will be paying Half Price to play on the grass from now on, as they came from behind to win the 1st Set 7-5 (3 to win on the last end), then powered away with a superb 12-1 win in the 2nd Set, and the rookie team are now in 3rd after 2 games, only off top spot on shot variance.

Seeing that scoreline by the Stones reminds me of that great joke that Scotty from the Buffed Helmets delivered after the Stones got belted one night…

“They were more like the Kidney Stones!”

Featuring in 4th place with a straight sets +8 shot win for the second week in a row was the Blue Bowls, who looked in all styles with an end to play of the 1st Set trailing 3-8 with an end to play against the Great Bowls of Fire, but Brad and the team (Which included Blair’s mum Kerry) had the UNO Draw 4 card up their sleeve in the form of a last end powerplay…

And wouldn’t you know it, the Blue Bowls pulled Todd’s pants down and picked up 3 shots to make 6, win the set, and they came back from a small deficit in the 2nd Set to comfortably win it 9-2, and I did originally announce the Blue Bowls as finishing on +10 shots, but this was corrected and didn’t affect any placings… in fact, even if Blue Bowls had finished on +6 shots they still would’ve been awarded 4th spot, because the two teams who finished on +7 shots both on lost on tiebreaks.

Another random note about this week’s Top 4… they’re the only 4 teams with 8 points through 2 games.

Finishing off the results for Week 2;

B Cups 1 are the fifth and final unbeaten team as they defeated the Saxons in a tiebreak on Grass Rink 4, and it was nearly a major slip up from the softball ladies as they cruised to a 10-2 1st Set win, then the Saxons locked down and won the 2nd Set 5-1, but the B Cups went for the overkill in the tiebreak and held 4 to win the game… unfortunately for them it won’t count towards their shot count, but it will give them 2 tiebreak wins from as many games.

B Cups 2 prevailed in a tiebreak against the renamed Trench Wenches on Grass Rink 1, and with supervisor Fat Jack vastly improved from last week (He actually worked out how many bowls per end), both teams had a fun old time with plenty of noise, as the Trench Wenches won the 1st Set 4-3 on the last end, then the B Cups got back and won the 2nd Set 5-3, and they got it done in the tiebreak to register their first points for the season.

After debuting in Week 1, the Gutter Girls were decimated as Leanne and Kath both ventured off to parts unknown to leave Nadia (Aka Mrs Spags) all alone, forcing an unlikely set of cameo appearances from Mr Spags, plus Salter Point characters Sue, Wendy and No Hope Avenue stalwart (and my neighbour) ‘Wags’ Walker, who was simply there for moral support as she spent most of the night catching up with AJ about adventures in Broome.

Having not played bowls for a while, it looked like a mismatch against the Top Shots, especially when the darts team won the 1st Set 12-2, but the ladies kept enough bowls out of the ditch to win the 2nd Set 6-3, and the miracle was completed with a tiebreak win, even as they were -7 shots on variance, which on the other hand was a very stiff result for the Top Shots.

The message was simple from Sue to the Price family… DON’T COME MONDAY.

The Bowled Guys got on the board for this season with a tough win against Rock N Bowl, and the chrome domes looked all at sea when Rock N Bowl won the 1st Set 12-1, capped by an 8 on a powerplay, but Loose Bruce and his team, which included Jamie, Jason and brother Craig coming back from FIFO and developing possible symptoms of insomnia, fought back and won the 2nd Set 10-2 to force the tiebreak, and with all the momentum they held 3 to win the game, getting off the bottom of the ladder.

Jackadder had a customary slow start as they lost the 1st Set 7-2 to EBIG (Featuring a cameo from Simon the Super Bowl Seahawk) on Synthetic Rink 4, but as is usually the case with Alex’s team, they start slow and finish with a wet sail, this time nailing an early 2nd Set powerplay to win the set 10-2, and they got the tiebreak to record their first win of the season.

Ten Pin extended their all-time record of tiebreak appearances by splitting the sets with the Unbelievabowls on Grass Rink 3, with the Unbelievabowls winning the 1st Set 6-1 followed by Ten Pin winning the 2nd Set 5-4 thanks to a last end powerplay, and with no car battery issues weighing them down this week, the veteran ten pin bowlers got the tiebreak win, leaving them just outside the Top 10 after Week 2.

The young Salty Bowls got their first win of the season, taking down the CDs in a tiebreak as the game followed a familiar pattern across many rinks on the night, with the CDs winning the 1st Set 10-1, but the young Salties turned the game into an arm wrestle and won the 2nd Set 4-2, and completed the win by holding 2 in the tiebreak…Unfortunately for the CDs, they were the second of two teams to sit +7 shots ahead after both sets, but lost the tiebreak.

And the last unmentioned result was the Sausage Bowls’ victory against the Buffed Helmets on Synthetic Rink 7, as the Sausages won a low scoring 1st Set 5-1, then the Buffs won a thrilling 2nd Set 6-5 thanks to a last end powerplay, with another set highlight being Kip from the Buffs smashing the jack into the ditch from 5 down to make 2, but Ellen and Trudy did the job in the tiebreak to get the Sausages their first win of 2026.

Also, I will bring attention to this wrong bias that Trudy put down during the game… Plugger the Wrong Bias pig is coming for his unpaid dues.

Results

Grass

Rink 1: B Cups 2 (3pts +1) defeated Trench Wenches (2pts -1), 3-4 5-3 1-0 in the tiebreak

Rink 2: Salty Bowls (3pts -7) defeated CDs (2pts +7), 1-10 4-2 2-0 in the tiebreak

Rink 3: Ten Pin (3pts -4) defeated Unbelievabowls (2pts +4), 1-6 5-4 2-0 in the tiebreak

Rink 4: B Cups 1 (3pts +3) defeated The Saxons (2pts -3), 10-3, 1-5, 4-0 in the tiebreak

Rink 5: Jack Hughmans (4pts +13) defeated Bowling Stones, 7-5, 12-1

Synthetic

Rink 1: Bowled Guys (3pts -3) defeated Rock N Bowl (2pts +3), 1-12 10-2 3-0 in the tiebreak

Rink 2: Blue Bowls (4pts +8) defeated Great Bowls of Fire, 9-8 9-2

Rink 3: Gutter Girls (3pts -7) defeated Top Shots (2pts +7), 2-12, 6-3 1-0 in the tiebreak

Rink 4: Jackadder (3pts +3) defeated Ebowla Bad, Ibowla Good (2pts -3), 2-7 10-2 2-0 in the tiebreak

Rink 5: Manning Up (4pts +20) defeated Shapes, 13-0, 8-1

Rink 6: Pepperjack Attack (4pts +27) defeated Crawshaw CC, 14-0, 13-0

Rink 7: Sausage Bowls (3pts +3) defeated Buffed Helmets (2pts -3), 5-1 5-6 2-0 in the tiebreak

Ladder

Captain’s Comments

Norm, Jack Hughmans: “A game played with good spirits”

Peter, Crawshaw CC: “At least the new pen worked well”

Brad, Blue Bowls: “We got money off Todd, What a great night”

Alex, Jackadder: “Glad I didn’t have to play that last shot!”

Sue, Gutter Girls: “To the Price family – Don’t come Monday”

Scott, Buffed Helmets: “After last week’s hilarity, there was Carry-ception at Manning… Carry the Bower and Carry the dancer at Manning AT THE SAME TIME”

Mark, Manning Up: “The score line speaks for itself”

Phil, Manning Up: “Brent’s back next week so the party’s over”