Sports reports: Rocky Gully clay shooters are off to World Champs

This story includes contributions from Derek Vanderzon, Michael Potts and Terry Hann.

After a lengthy qualification process involving local, state and national competitions, congratulations to Rocky Gully Shooting Clays members John Monaghan and Craig Scheele for making the Australian team, and to Janette Densley and Jimmy Papaioannou for being named in the reserve positions.

This particular discipline is considered one of the most challenging, often called the formula one of clay shooting.

It features a variety of targets shot from a low-gun position – stock below a line on the vest – across different parcours, or layouts.

The FITASC World Championships will be held in Lisbon, Portugal from July 16-19.

One-shot win puts Murray Bridge in LMBA grand final

Murray Bridge have booked their place in the Lower Murray Bowls Association grand final, but were pushed to the limit by a dogged Jervois outfit.

Ironically, the two Murray Bridge rinks which have been almost impregnable this season, suffering just the one loss between them when at full strength, were both defeated in tight contests.

It was left to Bruce Attrill's rink to save the day for the home side in a nail-biting finish.

They justifiably reminded the author of this, as we had identified them as the potential vulnerability in our preview last week.

Andrew Stasinowsky, Brian Traeger, Helen Lindner and Ben Traeger had suffered just the one defeat this season, but were under constant pressure from Jeremy Scannell, Graham Fromm, Graham Schenke and Stuart McCulloch who were never headed after taking the lead after 4 ends, going on to win 18-14.

Scannell held a six-shot lead after six ends and was good enough to hold off several challenges throughout the day's play.

Stazinowsky levelled the scores temporarily after 16 ends, but Scannell took the next three ends, and four of the last five, to claim the biggest scalp of his short skippering tenure.

He has shown that he is more than capable of fulfilling this role and will take a lot of confidence from the result.

Darren McIntosh, Tony Trewren, Troy Penhall and Paul Smart have been equally as impressive this season, only losing when either McIntosh or Trewren have been unavailable.

They looked to be carrying on their good form when they led 13-3 against Graeme Herbert, Derek Vanderzon, Shane Fromm and Neil Morris, mainly due to some terrific conversions by Mcintosh and a few 'own goals' by a desperately unlucky Herbert.

But the tide turned with Fromm beginning to dominate after the break, and Vanderzon created a few opportunities for Herbert which he built on.

Herbert hit the front on the 20^th end with a three after winning five successive ends, and held on for a 16-15 win in a low-scoring contest.

Bruce Attrill, Aaron Jones, Judy Zadow and Brian Leckie raced out to a 13-1 lead against Shawn Hicks, Heather Fromm, Tim Hicks and Grace Hameister.

They looked to be coasting to an easy win as Murray Bridge built an imposing lead across the board.

But Hicks stopped the bleeding with three singles leading into the break, and with four, two and three immediately after levelled the scores at 13 apiece.

Attrill again broke free with a four, only for Hicks to again level the scores after 17 ends.

Attrill went to the final end four shots in front, but Jervois had edged their way to a one-shot lead overall with the other two rinks having completed their 21 ends.

Zadow drew one shot as the prospect of a tiebreaker end came into play, but Attrill rose to the occasion, drawing a second shot with his final bowl.

Hicks had a final chance to snatch the win, but was a touch heavy with his final bowl and a relieved Murray Bridge side were into the grand final by one shot.

Jervois will now take on Tailem Bend, who ended an extended losing run by eliminating Mannum. 

Jervois will go into the match knowing that they are capable of matching it with the best, while Tailem will feel they have nothing to lose and should provide a good contest.

Sportsmen, Coorong win junior lawn tennis grand finals

• Division one: Murraylands 7 sets 59 games lost to Sportsmen 7 sets 62 games.
• Division two: Coorong 8 sets 66 games defeated Banks 6 sets 58 games

Murray Bridge trainers secure wins at Morphettville, Balaklava and Magic Millions

Murray Bridge has again provided a stunning day’s racing action at Thomas Farms Racecourse for its two big Magic Millions Classics – both won by Victorian-based trainers.

But the winning trainers, Flemington-based Ben, Will and JD Hayes with Rich On Bubbles and Warrnambool mentor Tom Dabernig in charge of Shadavar, can lay claims to being locals having strong South Australian links and until a few years ago were in a training partnership.

Shadavar, in particular, simply was never out of first gear to take out the $122,250 three- and four-year old classic over 1200 metres.

They are all members of the powerful Colin Hayes family – a South Australian and Australian icon.

Rich On Bubbles was the other major classic winner, taking out the $202,250 race, the richest race in SA for two year olds.

Brilliantly ridden by Kayla Crowther the Hayes’ runner careered away to beat Cliff Runner and Lalor.

• Bootlegger ridden by Emily Finnegan and trained by Dan Clarken and Oopy MacGillivray won the The Fotobase Group Morphettville Guineas
• Brown Nose Day Gal ridden by Brooke King and trained by Ros Day won the Sportsbet Feed Handicap, Benchmark 64 at Morphetville in Monday
• Angel Torque ridden by Alysha Warren and trained by Dan Clarken and Oopy Macgillivary won the Spry Civil Construction, Rating 72 at Murray Bridge on Saturday

Murray Bridge trainers, Kristi Evans, Stephen Theodore, Nicole  Irwin, Justin Pickering and Sophie Logan dominated last Wednesday’s winners at Balaklava, taking out five of the seven races.

• Serinite Illusion ridden by Jason “Stubby” Holder, trained by Sophie Logan won the Taylors Wines Rating 0 - 56 Handicap
• Artissi ridden by Stacey Metcalfe, trained by Nicole Irwin won the Coopers Brewery Rating 0 - 56 Handicap
• Chillcuz ridden by Alysha Warren, trained by Justin Pickering won the BTR Excavations Benchmark 58 Handicap
• Flying Brant ridden by Jackson Murphy, trained by Stephen Theodore won the Sportsbet Racing Form Maiden Plate
• One Whim ridden by Dom Tourneur, trained by Kristi Evans won the Clare Valley Toyota Maiden Plate

Stormin' Bormann Takes the Choccies

Solid "A" grader Jason Bormann was the star of Saturday's Stroke competition when he found himself on top at day's end having scored a two better than handicap nett 66. 

With the 92 strong field still playing the original course thanks to the previous weekend's bucketing of rain keeping the new holes out of action, scoring was not easy with the tees right back and the fast growing fairways keeping the groundsmen busy during the week and not giving up much run.

In fact if one stared at the grass for a short time you could probably see the blades of grass actually lengthening before your eyes. 

Bormann did best keeping out of trouble and cashing in often enough to be the only player for the day to beat his handicap.

Never one to blow his bags, apparently there was nothing to see here, just good solid golf.

Monstrous hitting "A" grader Luke Woods won the top division with a nett 69 while young "B" grader Brayden Denman chalked up the same score to top his grade.

His round included a stunning 38 off the stick (just two over par) front nine which also won him the day's coveted Pro comp.

"Fiery" Freddy Carter huffed and puffed his way around the course to claim the "C" grade with a handicap equalling nett 68.

Echunga GC visitor Steven Koop paid us a visit and would have been glad that he did after being successful in winning the richly paying Yabby on the tricky 14th hole after steering a sweetly struck iron tee shot closest to the pin. 

Snakes alive! It's rare to see a slithering reptile on our course but a visitor testing out the practice putting green on Saturday reported seeing an 18 inch baby eastern brown snake diving into the garden bed between it and the car park. Lucky they're not dangerous - ha!!!                                                 

Ace time? One of our social members was chuffed after hitting a hole in one on the 11th during a practice round mid last week.

His first one - well done!

Just for interest there has been a seventeen month drought since the last "ace" was recorded at Ritter Street in a competition round when there are usually three or four struck every year.

Time for us all to lift our games.

Maybe the incentive just isn't there any more?

Apparently back in the good old days players were rewarded with a bottle of scotch from the club when scoring a hole in one.

Email your sports reports to jane@murraybridge.news.