Sports reports: Nathan Thorne creates history at Murray Bridge Speedway
Plus the latest in lawn bowls, rifle shooting, horse racing and more.
This story includes contributions from Speedway Sedans Australia, Derek Vanderzon, Daniel Irvine, Michael Potts and Terry Hann.
South Australian Nathan Thorne has made history in a number of ways at the Murray Bridge Speedway after he claimed his third successive SSA Street Stock National Championship.
Thorne joins fellow South Aussie Anthony Beare as only the second person to win three Street Stock Titles in a row, but his latest win was made more special with twin brother Heath Thorne coming home second.
This in itself adds chapters to the history books, marking the first time since the Oldfield brothers achieved the feat in 2005 that brothers have finished first and second in the title race and doing it at their home track with a supportive crowd made the win even more special.
Local hope Darren Brumfield started from pole position for the 40-lap final alongside defending champion Nathan Thorne, while the second row was filled out by Shane Roycroft and Jake Koivumaki.
- Read more: murraybridgespeedway.au/thorne-makes-it-three.
Mannum and Tailem Bend fight it out for the double chance
A two-shot loss to Mannum against RSL has left them locked with Tailem Bend and Jervois on 8 wins and 6 losses in a battle for the crucial double chance, and an opportunity for a home preliminary final with 3 rounds remaining before finals.
A 23-9 win for RSL's David Graham, Anthony Wilkin, Matt Wynne and Vicki Johnson over Terry McDonnell, Marty March, Steve Gregory and Gary Odgers was just enough to cover losses on the other two rinks.
Just 12 shots were scored in the first half, with 10 singles and a solitary 2 seeing Graham leading 8-4.
A 3 to Graham on the 12th gave him a 7 shot lead, but this was reduced to 3 shots after 16 ends.
Graham went on to win 5 of the final 6 ends, including the last four, and with a 3 and a 5 powered away to a 14 shot win.
David Thiele, Dave Newell, Phil McNamara and Phil Day went down 20-25 to David Kempe, Graham Wakefield, Graham Leathers and Peter Wegner, but a late rally was important as they reduced a 14 shot deficit after 12 ends to just 5 at the finish.
A pair of 5's had Kempe well in control in the first half, despite a brief challenge with Thiele adding a 4 and a 2 in succession.
But the scoring dried up for Kempe as he added just 3 singles over the last 9 ends while Graham added another 12 shots.
Although falling short by 5 shots the comeback was crucial in securing the overall win.
The final rink saw Gavin Pfeiffer, Tom Towns, Ian Windebank and Colin Campion finish with a flourish to overhaul Noel Kneebone, Max Wilkin, Steve McNamara and Gary Daniel in a second half reversal.
For Kneebone it was almost deja vu as a 12-5 lead at the break turned into a 14-21 loss.
He could only advance his score by 2 singles in the second half, but still led 14-13 with 2 ends to go.
Pfeiffer finished with two 4's to clinch the win, and very nearly the 6 match points.
At Jervois, the home side finished the better over the last 5 ends to defeat Tailem Bend 71-55 and earn 10 points.
Graeme Herbert, Derek Vanderzon, Shane Fromm and Neil Morris won only 10 ends but were comfortable 25-14 winners over Duane Edwards, Merv Stevens, Stuart Rooke and Bernard Naulty.
Edwards led 4-2 after three ends before disaster struck.
A sloppy end with his sides first 7 bowls all falling well short saw him 7 down at the head.
Edward's final bowl fortuitously wicked in for shot after looking to be well wide, but Herbert still had 1 bowl left.
His drive was, to paraphrase, "millimetre perfect," and not only took out the shot but stopped in the count for an 8.
Herbert then added another 6 shots over 3 ends to lead 16-4.
From thereon Edwards rallied strongly with assistance from Stevens, but despite winning 9 of the next 14 ends could not make any inroads on the scoreboard.
Jeremy Scannell continued his unbeaten run as skipper and with Graham Fromm, Graham Schenke and Stuart McCulloch overran Sam Shepherd, David Hoare, Keith Wood and Grantley Byrne 21-15.
Shepherd looked to be gaining control either side of the break as he turned a 4 shot deficit into a 13-8 lead after 14 ends, but a crucial turnaround occurred with Scannell picking up successive 4's to double his score and go 3 ahead.
Scannell then restricted Shepherd to just 2 more singles and added another 5 shots for a hard fought for win.
Travis Schenke, Rob Hales, Steve Gordge and Chris Slattery just held off a fast finishing Shawn Hicks, Tim Hicks, Heather Fromm and Grace Hameister to win 26-25, securing 2 points for Tailem.
Two 4's in the first 3 ends were followed by two 5's either side of the break as Schenke went 21-9 up.
Hicks clawed back a few shots, but a 3 to Schenke had him 10 ahead with 2 ends to go.
A 3 to Hicks was followed up by a 6 on the final end as he fell tantalizingly close to levelling the score.
Remarkably, the winner in all 3 rinks had won fewer ends than their opponents.
As expected, Murray Bridge had a comfortable win over Karoonda to be well clear on top.
Andrew Stasinowsky, Brian Traeger, Helen Lindner and Ben Traeger took a while to warm up before disposing of Erin O'Malley, Garry Mason, Damon Fromm and Malcolm Waechter.
O'Malley was off to a good start, winning 6 of the first 7 ends to take an 8-1 lead. But things turned sour very quickly as Staz added 5,2,1 and 6 to go to the break 7 shots ahead after trailling by 7 just 4 ends earlier.
Both sides won 5 ends after the break, but O'Malley was restricted to singles and went down 27-13.
Darren McIntosh, Tony Trewren, Troy Penhall and Paul Smart were also a little slow out of the blocks, but quickly recovered to beat Rowan Zadow, Rohan Tomkinson, Jayden Turner and James Boughen 24-16.
Zadow opened with 3 singles, but McIntosh responded with three 3's for a 9-3 lead.
Scoring was mainly in singles after that, before McIntosh broke away with a 4 and 3 to go 15 ahead with 2 ends left.
Zadow reduced the margin with a 4 and 3 to cancel out the previous 2 ends in going down 24-16.
Ian Symonds, Belinda O'Malley, Tarryn Turner and Robyn Burdett salvaged a point for Karoonda with a 3 on the final end to draw with Bruce Attrill, Aaron Jones, Judy Zadow and Brian Leckie.
The scores were close throughout, but a 3 to Attrill with 2 ends to go gave him a 4 shot lead in a low scoring contest.
A single to Symonds kept him in it, and he finished with a 3 to share the points.
Poharama wins stroke competition
Which one, you may ask, as there's four in the family who play on a regular basis.
This time it was one of the boys, Cameron, with a ripping nett 65 – five better than his handicap – to win the stroke competition on a beautiful summer's day at the Ritter Street circuit in Murray Bridge.
Starting steadily Cam slowly wound things up and roared home with a super back nine to end up with his winning score.
He needed that great back nine too to fend off an on fire Aaron Harding who blazed a brilliant front nine of nett 31.0 before fading slightly down the back to also end up with a nett 65 but Poharama got him on a countback for the day's major prize.
Harding's great front nine at least won him the day's lucrative Pro comp though.
There weren't too many excuses from nature on the course for players and top player Anthony Edwards certainly took advantage shooting a superb 71 off the stick to win the "A" grade with a nett 67.
Overall, a fairly uneventful day in terms of unusual incidents or silly golf so maybe this weekend's Stableford competition will generate more action on this front.
Adrian Conlon claims handicap, Karen Conlon takes the title in Rifle Club's annual championship
Eleven members and one visitor competed from 800 metres in the 20th round of the Murray Bridge Rifle Club’s annual championship.
Conditions were favourable and offered the promise of high scores despite the longer distance.
It was a promise met by Robert Paech in TR, who didn’t drop a point on his way to double possible 100.12 to claim the TR off-rifle and handicap win for the day.
While only one possible was shot in F-Class, many scores were only a point or two away.
John Cranwell scored the possible, a 60.02 in his second round, but it wasn’t enough after a first round 55.
Topping off-rifle with 117.07, was Mark Nesti a point ahead of Adrian Conlon
on 116.09, whose higher centre count meant that he claimed the handicap win by 0.6 of a point.
Ahead of both men, however, was visitor Karen Conlon, who shot a pair of 59s to
finish on 118.12.
Gordon Harrison was the top standard shooter for the day, with 106.01.
Harro’s sighters however were on the money scoring a 22.00 with his 4 shots, a point ahead of next best, Open winners Adrian and Mark, who tied on 21.01.
Another tie occurred for a less coveted prize, the Magpie Award, which was shared between David McDonald and John Cranwell, with a bird a-piece.
Competition continues next week from the much shorter range of 300m.
In-form trainer Roslyn Day takes home another trophy
Murray Bridge trainer Roslyn Day, with jockey Connor Murtagh, continues her successful run with Brown Nose Gal taking out a mid-week race at Murray Bridge.
Brown Nose Day Gal ridden by Connor Murtagh and trained by Roslyn Day (Murray Bridge) won the Sportsbet Green Tick Rating Handicap at Murray Bridge.
Arlo's Dream ridden by Campbell Rawiller and trained by Garret Lynch (Murray Bridge) won the Fred Vella Tyre and Crash Repair Maiden Plate at Murray Bridge.
Mannum CC extends lead by 15 points to top the table
Mannum 6/120 defeated Monarto 10/119
- Mannum best: Dwayne Krollig 49, Jayden Krollig 3/16
- Monarto best: Matthew Doyle 36, Jarrod Kowald 3/27
Mypolonga 6/124 defeated Ramblers 10/122
- Mypolonga best: Riley Hagger 33, Samuel Elliott 3/21
- Ramblers best: Keynan Harridine 50, Lual Kelei 4/37
Wanderers 10/279 defeated Meningie 10/119
- Wanderers best: Cameron Cox 91, Craig Fidge 3/21
- Meningie best: Stewart Williss 61, Paul McNicol 4/39
Jervois 8/179 lost to Tailem Bend 6/180
- Jervois best: Camron Jorgensen 59, Jasba Salter 2/33
- Tailem Bend best: Lucas Piggott 72, Toby Hollis 2/35
Hayley Davis and Trevor Wise manage double 180s in round three of A-grade darts
A grade
- Tungsten Tossers 14 defeated Mozzies 5
- Raukkan 12 defeated Vikings 7
- Mannum Club 10 defeated We're Sexy & We throw it A 9
- Launchers - BYE
B grade
- Bulrushes 12 defeated Mad Hatters 1
- Cod Kickers 9 defeated Mud Skippers 4
- We're sexy & we throw it 9 defeated Avengers 4
- Average Joe's 7 defeated Junkyard Dogs 6
- Force Darts 7 defeated Dart Addicts 6
Email your sports reports to jane@murraybridge.news.
