Sports Reports: Murray Bridge's Ethan Watkins wins gold medal at SA rowing championship
Gold for Murray Bridge rower; plus Central Districts' Jessica Schulz has reached a milestone, the latest in Murray Towns cricket, Lower Murray bowls and more.
This post includes contributions from Peter Newell, the Murray Towns Cricket Association, Derek Vanderzon and Daniel Irvine.
- Murray Bridge's Ethan Watkins wins gold medal at SA rowing championship
- Murray Bridge footballer plays 50th SANFLW game
- Mannum Kookaburras make the MTCA grand final
- Karoonda wounds RSL with points against Jervois
- Weather improves for Murray Bridge Rifle Club
Murray Bridge's Ethan Watkins wins gold medal at SA rowing championship
In the recent Rowing SA State Championship Regatta, Ethan Watkins (MBRC), J. Boyce (Unley High School), M. Henry (AUBC) and F. Balnaves (AUBC) formed a composite club crew to win the Under 19 Men’s Quad Scull State Championship, with a 21-second margin over second place Norwood High School in the time of 6 minutes 44 seconds.
In other Under 19 Men’s events, Ethan finished fifth in heat three of the Single Sculls.
Ethan and Nick Palmer (AUBC) had a comfortable row to finish third in heat one and qualify for the final; however, they had to scratch due to Nick suffering back issues.
In the Masters Women’s Single Scull, Bernadette O’Neil finished fourth, a length behind third-placed Sweeney of Riverside RC.
In the Masters Men’s Double Scull, after a three-way tussle, Graham Hunt and Mark Johnston (Riverside RC) finished second by 2 seconds to Torrens, with Riverside 0.5 seconds behind them in third place.
The Murray Bridge Rowing Club’s next regatta is at West Lakes on 11 March.
Murray Bridge footballer plays 50th SANFLW game
Central District Football Club’s Jessica Schulz, from Murray Bridge, played her 50th league game in the SANFL on Saturday.
To celebrate the impressive achievement, Schulz’s teammates carried her off Thebarton Oval after Central District’s game against Sturt.
“Carrying me off the oval was phenomenal: It was a really good feeling,” she said.
“Every day is a privilege to step out onto the oval.”
Schulz had three disposals and six tackles in her milestone match, which the Bulldogs lost 2.7 (19) to 8.8 (56).
Mannum Kookaburras make the MTCA grand final
In the A Grade Preliminary Final of the Murray Towns Cricket Association summer season, the Mannum Kookaburras defeated the Wanderers to make the Grand Final.
In the Grand Final on Saturday 4 March, Mannum will play against Mypolonga.
Mannum 8/117 defeated Wanderers 115
For Mannum: Zak Muirhead 31, Max Worthley 31 and 4/25, Nick Lindner 25
For Wanderers: Michael Stapleton 31*, Joardyn Williams 3/15, Craig Fidge 3/26
Karoonda wounds RSL with points against Jervois
RSL has fallen just short of a finals berth despite an impressive performance against Mannum, registering two wins and a draw to gain 11 points, leaving them one point and percentage adrift of Karoonda.
For their part, Karoonda secured eight points over Jervois, despite winning just the one rink.
Jason Sipos, David Graham, Kerri Bolt and Dale Neal led the way with a 22–10 win over Terry McDonnell, Tom Towns, Kelvin Newman and Trevor Dicker.
Trailing by five shots after five ends, the home side dominated from that point, conceding just two more singles in 13 ends while adding 19 shots themselves, including the last 12 shots scored over the final seven ends.
Noel Kneebone, Max Wilkin, Karen Kneebone and David Newell found themselves in a similar predicament against Graham Wakefield, Gary Fowler, Steve Gregory and John McDiamid, but also powered home to win 28–21.
A five to Wakefield on the 11th put him 10 shots ahead, but once again the home side piled on 19 shots to just two singles to storm home.
A six on the 17th end put Kneebone ahead for the first time, and they replicated their neighbouring rink by scoring the final 12 shots as well.
Anne-Marie Kuchel, Â Allan Wooldridge, Â James Galbraith and Gillian Newell had to be content with an 18 all-draw after giving up an 11-shot lead over Lynton Jones, Graham Leathers, Peter Wegner and Ian Begg.
Jones had edged ahead by two shots going into the final end after winning seven of the eight previous ends, but a two to Kuchel levelled the scores at the finish.
At Karoonda, the home side had a nervous wait on the RSL result after going down by narrow margins on two rinks in gaining eight points, knowing that they needed 10 points to cover the worst-case scenario.
Josh Porker, Shaun Wood, Gary Zadow and Bill Cornish created a big enough buffer with a 27–15 win over Shawn and Tim Hicks, Derek Vanderzon and Denis Hicks to cover the other two rinks.
A six and a three in successive ends to Porker was the difference between the teams, with Porker converting most of his opportunities.
The other two rinks were tightly contested all the way through, but Jervois secured wins on both on the final ends.
Graeme Herbert, Jeremy Scannell, Graham Schenke and Stephen Kroehn prevailed by one shot over Ian Symonds, Peter Jones, Malcolm Waechter and Don Loller, with neither side gaining any real advantage throughout.
Rodger Zarantonello, Graham and Heather Fromm and Bob Solley had a similarly close match against Rowan Zadow, Rohan Tomkinson, Paul and John Wegner, securing a two-shot win also on the final end, with 17–15.
Tailem Bend secured the luxury of a home final by holding off Murray Bridge for a thrilling two-shot win 66–64.
Murray Bridge needed 10 points to leapfrog Tailem into top spot but didn’t quite get there despite winning on two rinks.
Sam Shepherd, David Hoare, Damien Ackland and Matthew Hogan got Tailem over the line with a 24–17 win over Bruce Attrill, Peter Shilton, Paul Smart and Haydn Hein, offsetting two- and three-shot losses on the other two rinks.
Weather improves for Murray Bridge Rifle Club
A welcome change meant perfect weather to shoot, while the cool breeze had just enough variability in it to keep things interesting this weekend as a good turnout of 14 shooters gathered to compete from 1000 yards.
It was tight at the top across the board but particularly in TR, where after the first round, Andrew Heard was only a centre-V ahead of Robert Paech.
Andrew, however, had a spectacular second round, scoring a possible 50/50 at the longest range the sport offers – needless to say, this ensured him the top off-rifle award, by the barest of margins from Rob, and a comfortable win in the handicap.
In F-Class, it was again close as Ian Elston’s first round 59.03 proved enough to keep Mark Nesti from claiming the top place off-rifle, where the margin was again a single point.
Mark’s higher centre-X count, though, gave him the edge in the handicap award, winning by 0.3 from Wayne Halliday.
In F-Standard, the top score was Gordon Harrison with 100.04.
The Magpie Award is usually hotly contested from 1000 yards, and this week was no different, with both winners claiming the prize on a count-out.
In F-Class, Ian Taylor was unfortunate enough to shoot his third bird behind David Neumann.
While in TR, Daniel Irvine gave wife Jasamine a break, counting her out with four birds a piece.
Next week, competition moves to Mount Barker to shoot in the DRA Championship from the earlier start of 12 noon.
Email your sports reports to michael@murraybridge.news or call 0419 827 124.
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