Sports reports: Karoonda have still got it in Lower Murray bowls
Plus Murray Towns cricket returns and Murray Bridge rifle shooting rolls on.
This story includes contributions from Derek Vanderzon and Daniel Irvine. Email your sports reports to peri@murraybridge.news.
Karoonda have started their Lower Murray lawn bowls title defence with a hard-fought 56-48 win over Mannum at Mannum, despite getting up on just the one rink.
Rowan Zadow, Rohan Tomkinson, Ivan Silcock and Gary Zadow were the big winners for Karoonda with a 25-11 win over David Kempe, Lynton Jones, Graham Leathers and John McDiarmid in Kempe’s debut for Mannum after a transfer from Murray Bridge.
After a tight start, a five to Zadow on the fifth gave him the lead, which he maintained until the break.
Zadow took the first three ends after the resumption, and although Kempe responded with three in a row himself, only singles resulted and the deficit was out to eight shots.
A five on the final end was the big finish Zadow required with the scores tight across the board.
Terry McDonnell; Marty March, returning after several seasons’ absence; Tony Gill, also transferring from Murray Bridge; and Ron Van Tijn were four-shot winners over Josh Porker, Malcolm Waechter, Erin O’Malley and John Wegner, 21-17.
The scores were level after seven ends at five shots apiece, but McDonnell drew away either side of the break and, with a five on the 15th, eased out to a 10-shot lead.
Porker finished with a five on the final end, matching Zadow’s effort on the adjoining rink and reducing the margin to four shots to ensure the overall win.
Gavin Pfeiffer, Tom Towns, Steve Gregory and Ainsley Roberts, who made her division one debut, were 16-14 winners over Ian Symonds, Garry Mason, Malcolm McKenzie and Bil Cornish.
A three to Pfeiffer on the opening end gave him a good start, but the scores were locked away at eight each at the break and remained tight throughout.
Pfeiffer went to the final end with a one-shot lead and secured the win with a single, giving Mannum four consolation points.
Jervois fielded a somewhat makeshift side in their away win against RSL, with several regulars unavailable for the season opener.
Kevin Spinks played his first division one game in 10 years, skippering his rink of Graham Schenke, Grace Hameister and Shane Fromm to a commanding 32-9 win over Karen Kneebone, Anne-Marie Kuchel, Kerri Bolt and Sam Solley.
A five on the second end set the tone, and Spinks had already added a brace of threes by the break to lead 18-4.
More of the same followed after the break, with a six on the 13th inflicting more pain on the home side as the margin blew out to 23 shots.
Graham Fromm, Russell Schutz, Neil Morris and Steve Kroehn had a wildly fluctuating contest with Noel Kneebone, Bob Solley, Matt Wynne and Cooper Galbraith, but finished strongly to claim a six-shot win, 26-20.
A four to Kneebone on the second was cancelled the next end, but when Kneebone scored six, three, two and two in successive ends, he had a nine-shot lead and all the momentum.
This quickly evaporated as Fromm won seven of the next eight ends to edge ahead by one shot after 17 ends.
Kneebone took the lead again with a two, but a four to Fromm on the penultimate end was followed by a two to complete a big comeback win.
RSL salvaged two points with a masterclass from Jason Sipos, who led his rink of David Thiele, James Galbraith and Garry Daniel to a 27-13 win over Graeme Herbert, Darryl Little, Rod Harris and Derek Vanderzon.
Herbert saved his rink from a potentially disastrous first end, but Sipos then took control as time and again he converted while down multiple shots to completely dominate the contest.
Tailem Bend recovered from a disastrous start to edge out Murray Bridge by four shots, 61-57, although victorious on just one rink.
This hardly looked likely as Murray Bridge opened with scores of five, seven and five on each respective rink in a scarcely believable start at Tailem Bend.
Duane Edwards, Brett Reschke, Ian Shepherd and Con Jones recovered from dropping a seven on the first end and a subsequent 0-12 deficit to eventually prevail 24-17 over Bruce Attrill, Bob Johnson, Andrew Meddle and Brian Leckie.
Scores of two, five, two, one and one suddenly had them almost level at the break, and by the the 13th end they had hit the front.
Attrill momentarily retook the lead before a three to Edwards put him in front again after 17 ends.
Edwards went to the final end two shots ahead, and completed a remarkable day with a five to propel Tailem to the overall win.
David Hoare, Rob Hales, Stuart Rooke and Colin Baxter recovered much quicker to conceding an opening five, but were unable to overtake Ben Traeger, Helen Lindner, Brian Traeger and Gerry Penta.
They won the next four ends with singles to be just one behind after five ends, and the same margin at the break.
Traeger scored four, one, one, two upon the resumption to gain a seemingly match-winning nine-shot lead, but Hoare again hit back and with a three went to the final end just one shot down.
Traeger secured two points with a single on the final end.
Travis Schenke, Merv Stevens, Kevin McDonald and Grantley Byrne had a similar situation in their contest against Darren McIntosh, Tony Trewren, Paul Smart and John Bubner before going down by a single shot.
A five to McIntosh on the first end was the difference, with Schenke winning 12 ends to nine and drawing level after 15 ends before falling just short.
Wanderers win with a score that would make Richie Benaud proud
Wanderers 2/222 defeated Monarto 7/219
- Monarto best: Ty Pfeiffer 64, Riley Franke 1/29
- Wanderers best: Cameron Cox 2/37 and 52*, Ben Trenorden 141*
Mypolonga 1/308 defeated Tailem Bend 93
- Mypolonga best: Shannon Callery 153*, Keynan Harradine 116*, Aaron Zrim 5/10
- Tailem Bend best: Umesh Badu 1/57, Joshua van Piere 48
Meningie 3/156 defeated Mannum 151
- Mannum best: Kieran Hancock 32, Max Loller 2/40
- Meningie best: Zeke McNicol 4/44, Paul McNicol 3/39, John Zadow 60*
Stephen Howard gets his first handicap win at rifle club
A pleasantly warm but deceptively challenging day’s shooting has been had on Saturday at the Deed Range in Monarto, as Murray Bridge Rifle Club members shot the 11th round of their club championship from 400 metres.
The first round featured lower than average scores from most, with 46.03, from Robert Paech, the best in TR ahead of 46s from Andrew Heard and Jasamine Irvine.
Mark Nesti did well in F-class with a 58.03, ahead of Adrian Conlon with a 57.04 and Gordon Harrison with a 56.02.
- Read more: www.facebook.com/mbrifleclub.
