A pre-game circle as both the Manning & South Perth men's & women's teams (Who were both playing on the same green) got together to pay respects to Martin Downey, father of Manning's David Downey, who had died in the days prior to Round 1 (The connection being that Dave played for South Perth only a few years ago, several South Perth players had played with Martin, and Martin himself played midweeks at Manning during my first season)... we didn't even know until 1pm on the Saturday if Dave would even play, but he did, and we all got around him.
An early pivotal moment on our rink belonged to Cody Packer in his Manning pennant debut, when he trailed the jack back to our waiting catchers to go from 1 down to 5 up, then planted another shot in to hold 6 on the 4th End, which wound up being the final margin.
What a thrill to get a first-hand experience of one of the best players (And blokes) in this part of the world.
This one features Peter Ker and Blake Butler crouching over watching the shot, praying that John Hopoate doesn't make a sudden appearance.
The final couple of ends as PK, Blake and Cody look at the head with PK holding shot in between two South Perth bowls, with Tom Mitchell looking over and Marcus Sear standing like he'd been attacked by a mosquito.
There was an option to kick the jack out to the right and make 2, but the risk was too great with two South Perth bowls in catching positions if it went the wrong way, and ultimately Cody went the draw and put a second shot in, and a drive by Ross Bresland which could easily have trailed the jack a metre could only crack the holder out, so PK's bowl stayed shot.
At that time the score was 19-16 with 2 to play, we held another 2 on the penultimate end to pretty much wrap up the rink win with a 21-16 lead, then held another shot to make it 22-16 in an aggregate decided by a couple of shots, a great start to life playing in Saturday Premier League, however long it lasts.
On that note, Manning did go on to win the aggregate 75-73 in the Grand Final replay, and the overall was a bit closer than it appeared thanks to Scott Walker's rink clawing back 7 shots in the last 3 ends against Shane Knott's team, going from 19-12 to force a 19-19 draw...
The Millers did need a miracle 6 on the final end to win the aggregate outright, but could only create a 3, and Knotty did have the chance to cut it down having the last shot and get the point for the rink, but left his last bowl way too short to do any damage, so the points share was 6.5 to 1.5 in favour of Manning.
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