Super League Round 7 Results
Friday evening saw a beautiful balmy winters evening at Salisbury Bowling Club for the final minor round game of the SA Super League.
The 6pm games kicked off with the first two match ups ready to set the scene to determine the final ladder. Southern Blazers took on the Mallee Pirates on the eastern end of the green, in the singles match up the Pirates Simon Dorr took on the Blazers’ Ben Fidock. Dorr was on fire with a 25-3 lead going into the final end, before Fidock finished with a Super End called, claimed a four which doubled to an eight which took the final scoreline to 25-11 in favour of Dorr. The pairs saw the Blazers’ line up with the combination of Dylan Lewis and Ashley Whiley, with the Pirates pairing of Adam Forbes and Josh Thompson. Lewis and Whiley fired out of the blocks early storming to a 14-1 lead, Forbes and Thompson fought hard to get back into the game but the Blazers duo proved too strong taking the win 29-6. The last discipline in the match up saw the trio of Harry Burgess, Brenton Speed, Gavin Pfeiffer lining up for the Blazers against the Pirates’ Cath Greenslade, Gary Thompson, Gary Meekcoms on the live-stream rink. A close tussle between the two teams saw a see-sawing battle with the Super End playing a strong role in the final result, the Blazers taking the spoils with a 23-16 win, inclusive of two successful Super Ends. The Southern Blazers finished their SA Super League Campaign with a strong victory over the Mallee Pirates, 63-47.
Ladder leaders Heysen Comets took on the fourth position Eastern Raiders on the western side of the green. In the Singles, the Comets’ Ashley Halls took on the Raiders Tony Treloar, the thriller of a game saw Halls take the spoils with a Super End on the last end doubling a single to take the match 17-16. In the pairs match up the Comets’ Ben Harris and Josh Chopin were pitted against Steve Grant and Carl Schapel of the Raiders and another close game ensued, with the Comets duo emerging victorious 16-14. Jackie Gardiner, Cassandra Harvey, James Gregory were the triples team for the Comets, whilst Duane Edwards, Michael Lodge and Chris Flavel lined up for the Raiders, and the Comets trio rocketed out of the blocks, 9-0 up after the first five ends. The Raiders team fought hard but just couldn’t get themselves back in the match, eventually going down 10-23 to the strong Comets combination. The Heysen Comets cemented their top position going into finals with a 56-40 win over the Eastern Raiders, keeping them on their toes and waiting for the results from the remaining Round 7 games to find out if they’ve qualified for the finals.
The 8pm timeslot started with the South Eastern Spartans taking on the Western Rogues. The equation was simple for the Spartans win and secure a top two spot and a double chance in next week’s finals series, for the Rogues they were playing for pride and to enhance their finishing position on the final Super league standings. The Singles match up saw Blake Fiebig of the Spartans against Sam Dietrich playing his first singles game for the Rogues. Fiebig jumped out of the blocks showing his singles experience and raced to a 12-2 lead at the halfway mark. Despite his best efforts Dietrich couldn’t get the results to go his way and some great shots from Fiebig only extended his lead as he claimed a 26-5 win for the Spartans. The pairs saw undefeated young guns Nathan Black & Tyson Wilson for the Spartans against prominent duo Brady Slater & Ashley Klose fresh off a big pairs win last week for the Rogues. The game was of the highest quality featuring excellent draw bowling, pin point conversions and powerful drives to wow the crowds. There was little separating the teams with three ends remaining as the Spartans held a narrow 13-11 lead. The Spartans duo then showed why they have been the talk of the tournament taking the next three ends to record 22-11 victory. Finally the triples saw Daryl Stopp, Tony Devlin & Ken Holtham against Di Murch, Kate Argent-Bowden and Simon Geater-Johnson. There was a strong flavour of country players on the rink which was a showcase of what the Super League is all about with pockets of the state all represented. A very close game ensued with the Spartans trailing 14-15 with three ends remaining, as we have seen throughout the tournament a well-timed Super End can change the game rapidly and the Spartans executed this on the penultimate end to claim six shots which rocketed them to a 22-17 victory. Overall the Spartans claimed the match 70-33 which secured them second position on the ladder, whilst the Rogues finished off a campaign they will be disappointed with finishing in eight position.
The final match for the round was the Northern Knights battling the Central Chargers. The Central Chargers entered the night needing a near miracle to make the finals but after the earlier results just needed to record a victory with two rinks to snatch fourth spot, whilst the Knights wanted a win to try and grab a top two finish. In the Singles Darren Warner faced Adrian Green for the Chargers. Both players brought good singles form into the game and it was a tight tussle early with scores tied at six after ten ends. No one would predict what would happen next as Green put the pedal to the medal and rattled off the remaining eight ends including five multiple counts to record a 25-6 victory for the Chargers. This win set the tone for the match as in the pairs Yvonne Kelly & Kane Coulls for the Knights took on Fergus Rowntree& Mark Haines for the Chargers. With West Lakes club mates facing off in the skips position the players knew each other’s games well and another close game followed. Ultimately, a four on the penultimate end was the deciding factor for the Chargers securing a 12-11 victory. Finally the triples trio of Mathew Short, Todd Brand & Luke Pietersma took on Kane Goldsworthy, Ben Bowman & Craig Mills. Goldsworthy proved a worthy addition to the experienced Bowman and up and about Mills as they hunted that elusive finals spot. The Chargers had all the running and blew the lead open with back to back fives over ends fourteen and fifteen which would see them record a 29-9 victory. When the dust settled the Chargers claimed an all rinks up victory 66-26 which saw them record 12 points to the Knights 0 and leapfrog the Raiders by a slender two points into fourth position.
With the minor rounds completed, we farewell four teams who despite having moments of success didn’t qualify for the inaugural finals series. The finals series will kick off on Friday August 31st at the Salisbury Bowling club with the below match ups.
Friday August 31st – 6pm
Semi Final: Heysen Comets vs South Eastern Spartans
Elimination Final: Northern Knights vs Central Chargers
Friday August 31st – 8pm
Preliminary Final: Loser Semi Final vs Winner Elimination Final
Sunday September 9th – 1pm
Grand Final: Winner Semi Final vs Winner Preliminary Final
Full team results and the overall ladder can be viewed by clicking here.
Individual discipline ladders can be viewed below:
Singles
Pairs
Triples
