Sports reports: Murray Bridge United win mateship battle
Plus the latest in Murray Bridge speedway and golf and Tailem Bend drag racing.
This post includes contributions from MMS Media, Joe Di Santo, Lisa Sherry and Michael Potts.
- ⚽️ Murray Bridge United win mateship battle
- 🏁 Locals win three classes in dragway’s inaugural track championship
- 🏁 Track championship wraps up at Murray Bridge Speedway
- ⛳️ Joshua McPhee strikes late in the day
Murray Bridge United win mateship battle
On Saturday in the division three SAASL Anzac Round, Murray Bridge United’s season has got back on track with a 4-1 win at Beatty Terrace against Northern Wolves.
United claimed the Anzac Mateship Perpetual Trophy for the first time in the A grade.
A ceremony before the game was conducted by former United player and current serving Army Reservist Joseph Di Santo, with support from Navy Reservist Sean Hickey sounding the Last Post along with United and Wolves veterans Vince Nisco and Daniel Steel, as well as veteran families representing their loved ones.
The Wolves won the toss and United had the kick-off.
The wolf pack came out firing from the get-go and had United on the ropes within the first three minutes.
Wolves midfielder Amos Zahau casually placed the ball in the back of the net, making the score one nil in the Wolf pack’s favour.
The United faithful were starting to think that this was a continuation from last year’s game.
Coach Jeremy Byrnes rallied up the troops, they responded and matched the Wolf pack’s high energy.
United’s statesman, Graham Alympic, equalised in the 11th minute.
United started to gain momentum and maintained the game’s high energy but it was too much for Wolves midfielder Rosanki Rosanki; he earned himself a red card.
United’s perseverance paid off in the 39th minute as doyen Dylan August put his team in front, making the score 2-1 going to the half time break.
Both teams came out firing in the second half, with an intensity that earned a number of yellow cards.
To the Wolves’ credit, with some excellent goalkeeping from Sam Weightman and defending from sweeper Daniel Steel, they managed to hold off wave after wave of United attacks.
United managed to take further advantage of their extra man in the 77th minute thanks to a goal from Ricta Judy.
August headed home the winner in the 86th minute to give United the much needed three points and their first Mateship Trophy.
Northern Wolves player Amos Zahau was awarded the Di Santo Medallion for his outstanding efforts, by retired Army Cadets officer Helen Di Santo on behalf of the family.
Earlier, in the B grade, United won their first game of the season.
Goal scorers were Shem James, with two goals, and singles to Francis Milamila and Emmanuel Slattery.
United have the bye next week; the following week they are off to the Adelaide northern suburbs against Adelaide Dragon Sporting Club.
Locals win three classes in dragway’s inaugural track championship
All three members of the Sherry Foster racing team have taken home trophies after the 2023-24 track championships at the Dragway at the Bend.
It came down to the final run at the last round of racing to decide the winner for Lisa Sherry, so to say it was nail biting is an understatement.
Dave Foster had to fight tooth and nail for his win in a super-tough class and he wasn’t sure if he took out the overall points until the following day.
Bob Sherry had some car gremlins testing his patience every step of the way, but got the little gangster over the line for the win in the championship and took out second overall.
- Read more: www.facebook.com/lisa.blandford.39.
Track championship wraps up at Murray Bridge Speedway
The final placegetters for this year’s Murray Bridge Speedway track championship have been decided at an April 20 meeting, the eighth and final round of the 2023-24 series.
Championship points are awarded in both heat race and feature events, and drivers can earn a maximum of 110 points for winning all three events in the one race night, with seven race divisions taking part in this season’s series.
It was tight contest in the V6 sprints, with just 31 points separating the top three; but consistency paid off for Renee Pfeiler, who completed all of the series rounds, topped off with a feature race win in the October round.
She edged out last year’s winner, Nick Hall, who despite missing round two was still able to take second, with Kym Simon also driving consistently to take third.
The Modlites Track Championship was decided over three rounds spread across January, February and April.
Justin Chadwick topped the table with three podium finishes in the feature events over the three rounds.
Dylan Richter was in second place, scoring a perfect round in April by taking out both heat wins plus the feature, with Jake Armstrong doing enough to secure third place despite only contesting two of the three rounds.
The junior sedans division was split into top stars and new stars for the track championship, with some great performances shown by all competitors.
It was also fantastic to see the improvement of these young drivers throughout the series, with several drivers promoted from the new stars division into the top stars division.
Henry Brumfield, Lachlan Brown and Ollie Bartlett scored the top three points in the top stars, with Seth Grieg, Violet Thorne and Brodie Reichstein the top three in the new stars.
The modified sedans championship race wrapped up a round earlier than expected, with the division unable to find enough starters for the final round.
Nonetheless, it was Rob Uren improving from his third place in last year’s track championship to top the points this season, ahead of Mildura’s Wade McCarthy in second and Jamie Owens in third.
The wingless sprints division was again hotly contested, with more than 60 drivers participating in at least one round of this year’s championship.
It came right down to the final round, when Sam Martin’s performance was easily enough to overtake Jack McCarthy, who sat out the round, with William Caruso having a consistent run on the final night to earn him enough points to elevate him from 11th into third place overall.
This season’s track championship included formula 500 racing on four nights, with many interstate drivers welcomed to the Murray Bridge circuit.
Corey Jones, however, was able to finish each and every race across all four nights, securing him the points to take out back-to-back track championships, ahead of Angelo Karoussis in second and Victoria’s Dylan Anton in third.
Joshua McPhee strikes late in the day
Amiable golfer Joshua McPhee has left it ‘til late to snatch the lead, but snatch it he did with a marvellous 41 points in Saturday’s Stableford competition at Murray Bridge Golf Club.
Playing in the final group of the day, he stunned previous leaders Mark Bolton and Michael Broadley with his superior round, roaring home with an amazing back nine of 24 points and showing yet again he was capable of putting together a real run of top holes; if he can one day put it all together for the whole day, then watch out.
The nice autumn conditions made for some high scores, with Bolton reeling off a quite brilliant 40 points to win the A grade.
Broadley matched that to grab B grade honours in a quite unbelievable run on the back nine, where he shot a one-under-the-card 33 for a total of 26 Stableford points.
Staggering, really, and this won him the day’s pro comp but also may have put him into A grade for the start of the club championships this Saturday, thus eliminating him from the chance to win a B grade title.
He’s only small, but full of life: Michael Vella took out the C grade with another quality round of 39 points this time, to leave all but Dog Rothe (38) in his wake.
So it’s club champs time, with the next two Saturdays being the two and only two qualifying rounds for all players.
What a great line-up there is in the top division, with past winners Aaron Zrim, Jeff Morgan and Mark Bolton in contention again.
Throw in the highly credentialled Greg Lìndeberg and Andrew Meddle and future stars like Luke Woods and we have a wonderful series looming.
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