SA Super League Round 5 and 6 Results
Sunday 19th of August turned on a beautiful day bathed in sunshine for the SA Super League Family Fun Day again held at the magnificent Salisbury bowling Club. In addition to the great games of bowls which would see Round 5 and 6 of the SA Super League contested we were joined by the Rainbow Animal Farm, FizzBubble face painting, Sports Centre and had come ‘n’ try bowls throughout the day. Families from all around the state gathered to join in the festivities and it created a great atmosphere around the venue.
Beginning with Round 5 at 10am the first match up saw the Northern Knights entering taking on the Western Rogues, with both teams outside the top 4 entering the game it was a pivotal match for both teams finals hopes. The Singles match saw Darren Warner taking position for the Knights against Rogues Simon Geater-Johnson. Both being prominent country players they have squared off before in some big match ups and this encounter was no different. Warner had the better running early and jumped out to a 13-4 lead before Geater-Johnson won the next four ends to close the gap to 13-11. Warner then broke the momentum, and finished off steady to claim a 17-12 victory for the Knights. In the pairs Yvonne Kelly and Kane Coulls teamed up for the Knights to face off against Ashley Klose and Josh Studham for the Rogues. The Rogues combination started hot and claimed five shots on the third end to lead 8-0. This sparked the Knights combination into action and some great bowls from both players had the scores squared at 9-9 after 11 ends. The Knights then made a match winning play claiming 4 shots, followed by a further 4 shots doubled to 8 with the use of a Super End to open up a 21-9 lead. The Rogues pair were unable to repeat the medicine and the Knights claimed a 26-12 victory in the pairs. Finally, the triples saw Karin Lynch, Matthew Short and Luke Pietersma for the Knights taking on Marty Moloney, Corey Wildash and Sam Dietrich for the Rogues. Again the Rogues started strongly and opened up a 11-2 lead after 5 ends. As across the previous two rinks, the Knights then found their mojo and began powering home in the second half. More effective Super Ends to record scores of six and four shots respectively proved the difference as despite some great bowls from the Rogues trio the Knights recorded a 25-17 victory. This strong second half across all the rinks from the Knights saw them record a 68-41 victory over the Rogues including 12 points to 0. This game would be a major shaping factor for the overall Super League ladder.
On the adjacent side of the green the Southern Blazers looking to open their account for 2018 were taking on the Central Chargers looking to consolidate their finals position. The Singles match up saw Geoff Munn representing the Blazers against Adrian Green for the Chargers. Green started strongly to open up an 11-3 lead before Munn began to work his way into the match through his reliable singles craft to close the gap to 11-9. Green then found some rhythm of his own and used Super Ends to great effect to score counts of four shots and six respectively and create a match winning lead with the Chargers taking a 22-10 victory in the singles. In the pairs Ashley Whiley and Marc Evans for the Blazers took on Super League debutant Helen Minhard pairing with Mark Haines for the Chargers. The standard of this game was of the highest quality with all players contributing evenly, the leaders would set up the heads and some great conversion shots from Evans and Haines were influential for each side keeping their side of the scoreboard ticking over. The teams entered the final end with the Blazers holding a 17-15 lead, three great draw bowls from Whiley of the Blazers made it extremely difficult for the Chargers to wrestle back shot as the Blazers claimed three and a 20-15 victory. The triples match up saw Dylan Lewis, Gavin Pfeiffer and Justin Parkinson for the Blazers take on Fergus Rowntree, Ewen Graham and Craig Mills for the Chargers. The teams were extremely even initially, with the leading display of the under 18 members for each team being amongst the highlights. The Blazers held a slender 10-9 lead after 12 ends before a powerful finish saw them claim the next five ends to clench a 21-9 victory. When the dust settled, this would prove pivotal as the Blazers opened their 2018 Super League account claiming a 51-46 victory with 10 points to keep their slender finals hopes alive whilst the Chargers would have to settle for 2 points and look to rebound in the afternoon’s Round 6 match up.
Round 5 continued at 12pm with four new teams stepping onto the green to press their claims for Super League glory. The first encounter saw the South Eastern Spartans taking on the Eastern Raiders in what was anticipated to be a close encounter. The Singles saw Tony Devlin of the Spartans matched up against Tony Treloar for the Raiders in the battle of the Tony’s. It was a game full of defence and scoring was hard to come by for both players. They both crept up by scoring one’s with only four ends for the whole match registering a count of two. The pivotal run of ones eventually stacked up as Devlin for the Spartans claimed the last six ends to record a 15-7 victory for the Spartans. The Pairs match up saw Vicki Arbon and Daryl Stopp for the Spartans taking on Chris Thulborn on debut for the Raiders teaming up with Mitch Percy. The match was well poised at the halfway mark with scores locked away at 9-9 before as seen with many other games a well-timed Super End blew open proceedings. On this occasion it was in the Raiders favour as they claimed four shots which doubled to eight, from there they held solid and recorded an 18-13 victory. The triples match up saw Danyon Greenslade, Jake Prior and Scott Binns donning the Spartans shirt against Duane Edwards, Michael Lodge and Chris Flavel for the Raiders. The Raiders were yet to lose a triples combination throughout the tournament so the Spartans had a big task in front of them to change this. The Spartans looked as if they would accomplish this early as they jumped out to a 10-1 lead before the Raiders combination clicked into gear to peel off the next five ends. Scores were locked at 13-13 with only two ends remaining , with nothing separating the overall scoreboard everything was on the line and the Raiders faith in their Triples combination proved warranted again as they claimed a 17-13 victory. In a grandstand finish this saw the Eastern Raiders claim a 42-41 victory and take 10 points to the Spartans 2 which again would have drastic effects on the Super League ladder.
The final Round 5 match up on paper was perhaps the most intriguing as two teams sitting near the top of the table squared off being the Heysen Comets against the Mallee Pirates. The singles saw Ashley Halls for the Comets taking on Andrew Hill for the Pirates. With both players claiming scalps in the singles discipline throughout the tournament it proved to be a great match and didn’t disappoint. Hill lead early for the Pirates with a score line of 15-3 before Halls powered his way back into the match. In the end a grandstand finish was produced with scores at 19-19 entering the last end, Hill held three shots on the head before Halls stepped up and calmly drew shot within a few inches of the Jack with his last bowl to steal a 20-19 victory for the Comets. Eyre Peninsula players Damon Edmunds and Ben Harris were tasked with the pairs duties for the Comets and came up against Lower North players Matthew Freebairn and Cath Greenslade for the Pirates. The Comets duo fired into action early claiming the first five ends to open up a strong lead before the Pirates started to find their range and pegged some shots of their own back. The fast start proved to be the difference as Edmunds and Harris held off Freebairn and Greenslade and claimed a 20-12 victory. The triples match up had young guns representing the Comets with Grace Moloney, Cassandra Harvey and James Gregory teaming up to take on more young guns for the Pirates with Lucy Tiller, Bailey Rafferty and Gary Meekoms representing them. In a similar theme to the other rinks the Comets made a fast start and lead 9-5 after 11 ends and then further stretched their lead with five shots scored on the twelfth end. The Pirates made another late charge but couldn’t reel in the early deficit created by the Comets as the Comets recorded a 17-10 victory. This gave the Comets a resounding overall victory 57-41 claiming all 12 points to the Pirates 0 which propelled the Comets into top spot on the Super League ladder after round five and put the Pirates back into the pack.
Round 6 saw the teams go in after the ladder was shaken up in Round 5.
The first half of round 6 saw the Northern Knights pitted against the Eastern Raiders. The singles saw the Knights’ Bernie Ward and Raiders’ Tony Treloar with a very level playing field early, before a run of six ends in a row saw Treloar out 11-4. Ward made a huge effort to pick up a two and have great success with a Super End, turning a three into a six to sneak in front 12-11. Treloar however wasn’t ready to see the game won so quickly and match the huge effort to run out the winner 17-13 for the Raiders. The Knights pairs combination of Hayley Woolfitt and Todd Brand took on the Raiders’ Sheridon Bodnar and Mitch Percy, and whilst the scores were level early, the Knights duo put the foot down from the fifth end and absolutely roared to the finish, ending with a 29-8 victory. The Triples saw Duane Edwards, Laini McGorman and Chris Flavel line up for the Eastern Raiders, whilst Cooper Hocking, Darren Warner and Kane Coulls represented the Northern Knights. The game was a tense affair with the scores locked 10 all after 16, with the Raiders trio picking up the last two ends of the match to run out winners 15-10. The Knights took out the overall match however with a 52-40 scoreline.
The other side of the green saw the bottom of the table clash taking place between the Western Rogues and Southern Blazers. The singles saw the Rogues’ Josh Studham line up against the Blazers’ Gavin Pfeiffer with Pfeiffer taking the spoils 20-14 after staving off a late comeback from Studham. The pairs saw the Blazers’ Stephanie Clarke and Marc Evans take on the Rogues’ Brady Slater and Ashley Klose. Scores were locked at 5 all on 5, before the Rogues pair won the next four ends straight to go 12-5 after 9. The next few ends were split, however the Rogues pair faired well with their scores being big numbers to catapult them further into the lead and eventually running out winners 26-9. In the triples, the Blazers saw Theresa Emberton, Ashley Whiley and Justin Parkinson line up in the maroon, whilst in the green of the Rogues we saw Di Murch, Marty Moloney and Sam Dietrich. The Blazers trio jumped out of the blocks early with a 8-0 lead, before the Rogues strung together four straight ends to go 12-8, followed by a four to the Blazers to even the scoreline up at 12-all after 8. A tight few ends were had before the Rogues finished strongly assisted by the use of a Super End to win 26-14. The Western Rogues claimed the overall 66-43 over the Southern Blazers.
The final games at the SA Super League Family Fun Day saw the Heysen Comets vs the Central Chargers and the Mallee Pirates vs the South Eastern Spartans. The Heysen Comets saw Ashley Halls line up in the singles against the Central Chargers’ Adrian Green. A quality game saw Green out early, before Halls pegged him back. Green then stormed home in the last few ends taking a four on the last end to round out the match 23-14 to take the victory for the Chargers. The Pairs match up saw the Charger’s represented by Helen Minhard and Mark Haines once again, taking on the Comets’ duo of Ian Miller and Darren Niblett. The Chargers pairing stormed to an early lead after an early Super End was used, up 9-0 after 4. The Comets pair didn’t let the game go that easily however, with the last few ends a crucial turning point with Miller and Niblett taking the victory for the Comets 19-17. The Triples rink on the live-stream saw Damon Edmunds, Ben Harris and James Gregory lining up for the Comets, with Fergus Rowntree, Ben Bowman and Craig Mills their opposition for the Central Chargers. A close battle early saw the Comets just sneak into the lead, before a Super End by the Comets on the 15th end saw a five turn into a ten and swing the match the Comets way 21-9, a valiant effort from Rowntree, Bowman and Mills to pick up a three the following end, before Edmunds, Harris and Gregory closed out with two fours in a row to take the match 29-12 and guarantee the overall for the Comets. The Heysen Comets moved onto the top of the ladder with the 62-52 victory over the Central Chargers.
The match up on the other side of the green saw the Mallee Pirates and South Eastern Spartans in a tussle. The singles saw Blake Fiebig (Spartans) and Gary Thompson (Pirates) in a thrilling encounter, with Fiebig picking up a count of two on the final end to take the win by a slender one shot 18-17 over Thompson. In the Pairs, Nathan Black and Tyson Wilson once again lined up for the Spartans, with David Carter and Josh Thompson the combination for the Pirates. The game started in a close battle before young pairing of Black and Wilson again proved their worth, keeping the board ticking over seven ends in a row before holding out a late fight back from Carter and Thompson to take the match 20-9. The final discipline saw the Spartans line up with Alex Reynolds, Jodi Kotz and Ken Holtham, whilst the Pirates trio was Bailey Rafferty, Matthew Freebairn and Cath Greenslade, the scores were locked 11 all after 11 before the Spartans finished strongly holding off the Pirates triple 20-13 to clean-sweep the disciplines and see the South Eastern Spartans secured a finals berth with the 58-39 win over the Mallee Pirates.
The 7th and final round will be played next Friday night, 24th August with games at 6pm and 8pm which will determine the final standing for the ladder, who will be in the top four? And who will secure that elusive double chance? Head to Salisbury Bowling Club Friday evening to watch the action live.
Full team results and the overall ladder can be viewed by clicking here.
Individual discipline ladders can be viewed below:
Singles
Pairs
Triples
