Sports reports: Murray Bridge RSL’s finals hopes fade

This story includes a contribution from Derek Vanderzon, Daniel Irvine and Michael Potts. Email your sports reports to liana@murraybridge.news.

A one-shot home loss to Karoonda has almost extinguished RSL's chances of making this seasons finals, with them now slipping 23 points adrift of Murray Bridge, who drop to fourth after going down to Jervois.

Rowan Zadow, Rohan Tomkinson, Len Symonds and Gary Zadow were Karoonda's best performers with a regulation 21-11 win in a low scoring match against Noel Kneebone, Matt Wynne, Ann-Marie Kuchel and David Newell.

Neither side was able to score heavily, with only singles and twos conceded throughout.

Zadow managed six twos to just the one to Kneebone which proved the difference.

A big finish to Josh Porker, Malcolm Waechter, Erin O'Malley and John Wegner got them over the line 21-18 over David Thiele, Karen Kneebone, Alan Wooldridge and Phil Day.

Thiele led by six shots after ten ends, but a three to Porker right on the break closed the gap, and a five on the 14th had him up by two.

Thiele hit back with four ends on the trot and led by three shots with two ends to go, but another five to Porker regained him the lead, and he consolidated with a single on the final end to clinch the win.

Jason Sipos, David Graham, Kerri Bolt and Garry Daniel were 21-11 winners over Ian Symonds, Garry Mason, Malcolm McKenzie and Bill Cornish.

Successive threes on the 8th and 9th ends gave Sipos the break after an even start, and they also finished well with five of the last six ends, but could not quite make up the shortfall on the other two rinks.

Jervois leapfrogged Murray Bridge with a 71-50 win on two rinks at Jervois with a strong second half.

Tim Hicks, Graham Fromm, Derek Vanderzon and Bruce Smith were off to a good start when they raced out to a 10-1 lead over Bruce Attrill, Charlie DiSanto, Mike Ferris and Brian Leckie, but the margin was soon reduced to just 1 shot after 9 ends.

Hicks responded with the next eight ends in a row to lead by 16 shots and cruised to a 30-13 win.

Graeme Herbert, Jeremy Scannell, Denis Hicks and Shane Fromm overcame a three shot deficit after 12 ends to completely dominate Helen Lindner, Brian Traeger, Ben Traeger and Andrew Meddle over the final nine ends.

A 9-12 scoreline became 25-12 as Herbert added 16 shots to nil for an easy win.

Darren McIntosh, Tony Trewren, Troy Penhall and Paul Smart were winners for Murray Bridge with a 25-16 win over Kevin Spinks, Graham Schenke, Rod Harris and Neil Morris.

Thirteen shots to two from the 7th to 13th ends gave McIntosh control which he maintained to the finish.

Mannum belted Tailem Bend 81-39 and have seemingly put behind them their traditional post Christmas fadeouts to sit top, four points clear of Karoonda.

Terry McDonnell, Martyn March, Tony Gill and Ron Van Tijn had a day out against Duane Edwards, Michael Thorne, Kylie Slattery and Christopher Slattery with a 34-7 thrashing.

David Kempe, Graham Leathers, Gary Odgers and Todd McDonnell accounted for Travis Schenke, Merv Stevens, Kevin McDonald and Grantley Byrne 23-14.

Gavin Pfeiffer, Tom Towns, Steve Gregory and Ainsley Roberts completed the clean sweep with a 24-18 win over David Hoare, Rob Hales, Con Jones and Stuart Rooke.

Brinkley's finest salutes in golf comp    

Brinkley agricultural mogul Dean Pearson was in the spotlight on Saturday after taking out the men's stroke competition at Ritter Street in impressive style.

Anyone with a road named after them must be important and Deano certainly is as the unofficial Mayor of the former township.

He can also play a bit of good golf on occasions too having been well schooled in the tough regular Sunday morning practice group sessions frequented by the likes of Kym Thomas and "Gentleman" George Langsford amongst others.

Saturday was showtime and with a sizzling back nine he fended off all challengers with his three better than handicap nett 67 enough to win with.

Notoriously handbraked by bad luck on course (allegedly) there was apparently none in sight on this occasion and so victory was Deano's.

A popular win? You bet, just ask him.                 

A sizeable field of 88 fought out the day with some of the highlights being the talkative Keith Durham winning the A grade with a nett 68 and club junior champion Cohen Naughton atop B grade with his nett 67.

In the C grade there was a long overdue return to form from Fiery Freddy Carter which gave him success with a nett 71.

Any lowlights on the day?

Glad you asked because Jeff Wright owned up to having had six shots in the bunker front left on the 10th.

Luckily the ten shot mercy rule was in play for the stroke round otherwise he might still be in there!                 

Back on a positive note just how good is Brett Altschwager hitting the ball these days?

Can barely do a thing wrong as his handicap can now be counted on one hand and to celebrate he was all over the pin on the 14th to win the Yabby.

Con Jones almost holed his tee shot on the 11th to earn yet another NTP.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, however, when they discovered that it didn't go in.

Mannum take away Mypo's undefeated reign

Mannum 8/200 defeated Mypolonga 9/183

• Mannum best: Josh Boylan 61, Max Worthley 3/32
• Mypo best: Keynan Harradine 67, Riley Walton 3/37

Meningie 9/160 lost to Monarto 8/161

• Meningie best: Stewart Williss 63, Oliver Crossman 3/20
• Monarto best: Daniel Matthews 53, Brock Smith 3/18, Riley Franke 3/42

Wanderers 3/269 defeated Tailem Bend 8/168

• Wanderers best: Craig Fidge 85*, Wayne Slee 2/10
• Tailem best: Paul Baxter 43, Brad Kleinig 1/25

Bird bonanza for the Murray Bridge Rifle Club

Magpies were the order of the day on Saturday, as the Murray Bridge Rifle Club contested the 17th round of its annual championship from 800 metres, with only a Gordon Harrison not registering any ‘birds’ in his score.

Gordon’s wind reading helped him to claim the top off-rifle award in F-Standard with a pair of 50s for 100.02.

He was only a point behind John Cranwell, who claimed the F-Open top off-rifle with 101.03.

Apart from Frank Marshall, Gordon and John were the only shooters to crack 100 on difficult day, with top off-rifle in TR going to Robert Paech with 87.05.

The handicap award gave some consolation to shooters and provided for a tight contest, as Robert Paech claimed the prize in TR by 0.4 points from Greg Traeger, while in F-Class, Peter Casley took home the honours by 0.1 points from Wayne Halliday.

Needless to say there was fierce competition for the Magpie Award!

But the winners were Jasamine Irvine in TR, with three birds, counting out her father Greg Trager, and Wayne Halliday in F-Class with four!

Shooters will be hoping for calmer weather next week when the club is scheduled to shoot from 1000 yards.