The district and indeed zone season of Pennants has concluded for another year, with a number of grades going right down to the wire.
In the combined Grade One and Two event Nambucca Heads stormed in to the lead with just a handful of matches remaining, courtesy of a round five defeat of Park Beach, and also seeing Park Beach falter at the hands of Urunga. Due to washouts and deferred matches the round ten clash between the two sides would be Nambucca's second last and Park Beach's third. Leading by just one point a win was vital to Nambucca's hopes, and playing Park Beach at home it certainly seemed like this might be the year for a new champion. Nambucca started brilliantly leading by some fifteen shots at the mid way point of the match, however all three Parky rinks closed the gap, with Jim Swan edging ahead of Ken Rostron. Trailing by four shots with three ends to play the Beach boys showed why they have had so much success in recent years, claiming all three ends to sneak in for a tense one shot victory and move themselves one point ahead of Nambucca on the ladder. Urunga ensured C-Ex would be relegated with a big win, also keeping themselves at the head of the table. However without any matches in hand they would now be reliant on Sawtell and Park Beach two's results. Sawtell's round ten win over the Parky twos had in fact ensured it was a two horse race.
In the following washed out matches, Nambucca posted a 5 - 1 victory over Coffs however as Parky Ones claimed a comfortable 6 - 0 victory over their seconds, the first grade flag was sealed.
Grad two was still in the offing with Sawtell requiring at least a 5 - 1 result against Park Beach ones, being played at Park Beach. Sawty started strongly however it became apparent at the mid way point that at they would drop at least one rink and win one rink, with Sawtell's Graeme Green, well on top of Ric Southam, and Parky's Cory Daley leading Ben Proctor comfortably. In the end it was Jim Swan's come from behind win over Ian Weldon that ensured a Parky win and the flag for Urunga.
The tale was not over yet though with Park Beach stripped of their points in the Sawtell clash due to playing a player who had actually already played in the round that the deferred match was from. In a show of great sportsmanship from Sawtell, they refuse to accept the points and flag remained in Urunga's hands. This was a fair result as Urunga had been the better team through the year and deserved to walk away with the flag.
In Grade Three, Woolgoolga stormed home over the final rounds to clinch the flag from half way leaders Park Beach who lost two of their final three matches. Woopi will now have the chance to test themselves next season against the best the MNC has to offer when they join the first and second grade division.
Grade Four was sewn up by Nambucca by round seven, the side dominating from start to finish to book themselves a place in the zone final. The side managed a 4 - 2 win over Park beach in round ten, whilst Bellingen lost what would be their final match at their current venue to Sawtell. All bowlers in the district sincerely hope the club will find a new home with a merger with another local sporting club.
A report on Grades five to seven as well as zone final results to come shortly, as well as a district championship update as a number of events will reach their conclusion over the next two weeks.
Til next time...
Chippy
