And rather appropriately, this emulation of Big Red came during the same week as the Melbourne Cup Carnival.
The only day we didn't line up was Melbourne Cup Day.
Derby Day Saturday (November 4) - Won 24-15 against Doubleview at Doubleview
A great performance on the road against an old foe on a boiling day in Perth, as we went back and forth for pretty much the entire afternoon and ultimately kicked clear at the end to win the rink and the aggregate, the standout end being the 20th End, when we put Cody Packer on the mat down 4 shots while leading 20-15 on the board, and displaying his talent for starring on television in the Bowls Premier League, Cody trailed the jack to Blake for shot on his first attempt, then his second bowl (After Ryan Moyle replied and put us down 1), he sat the little orange holder clean and we went from 1 down to 3 up, sealing the rink.
Sunday, November 5 - Won 21-19 against Bassendean at Manning
This was almost the greatest collapse since Ansett went arse up, as we led 20-4 (20-5 depending on your sources) after somewhere close to 13 ends, and were the only Manning rink that even looked like getting a point, then when we dropped a shot, Bassendean got the mat and shortened the ends and displayed some excellent front end bowling to put us under the blowtorch, and the next thing you knew we led by a mere 20-19 with an end to play (Packer cut 3 bowls out to get 2nd shot on the 20th end to make sure we didn't trail going into the last end)...
Then we finally did what we couldn't do for 6 ends and actually got a few bowls within 2 feet, Blake Butler did the rest to put us up 2 when Cody got on the mat, Mr Bowls 360 Simon Alden could only cut 1 shot out, and we won 21-19 to end a dirty day out on a positive note.
However, the story across the board was that Manning turned up half-cocked and paid the price, as Basso punched us in the mouth and won the aggregate by 22 and took 7 points.
A surprise aggregate defeat, but it was only November.
Oaks/Blokes Day Thursday (November 9) - Won 23-14 against the other Manning team in the Thursday Premier League South Derby
Down 5-12 and 8-13 after 13 ends against the Big Bad 1s, our rink held 15 shots in the next 8 ends, and through sheer determination and consistency, the Manning Terrible Twos ultimately won the aggregate and the Manning Derby with a bit of help from Sam Perica, as he had a bowl to win the aggregate for the 1s on the last end, only to whack the second shot onto the jack, push it back and give us 3.
In my experience, there's no such thing as luck.
3/3, 1 game to go.
Friday (November 10) - Won 31-5 against Mount Lawley at Mount Lawley
Completing the grand slam of pennant rink wins in a week was a very rare Friday night pennant game for Manning, a first for many years, and it would be on the road against the last unbeaten team in Premier division, Mount Lawley.
Now, for those of you unfamiliar to the realm of bowls in WA, Mount Lawley has a lovely Art Deco clubhouse (We don't get many survivng Art Deco buildings south of the Narrows Bridge), and it's also the home of time-honoured Consistency Singles run in September...
Which is fitting, as I remarked to Cody and Blake after the game was done, because the four of us displayed Consistency with a Capital C, conjuring up the biggest win of any rink in Premier League this season (Admittedly it is only 4 rounds in)...
31-5, ensuring the aggregate was never in doubt, but what was more remarkable about a scoreline so lopsided is that our biggest hold of the night was on the last end, when we held a 4 after giving up 4 consecutive 1s, which saw the score cut from 27-1 to 27-5.
More to the point, our score was composed of 1 hold of 4 shots, 2 holds of 3, but the big one was 8 holds of 2 and 5 holds of 1 - I haven't played pennants for long, but it was the most complete rink performance I've ever had the pleasure of playing in.
Capping off a successful night, in front of a hardy crowd that got to hear Cher, The Bee Gees and Michael Jackson over the PA system, plus the fireworks from across the CBD at Gloucester Park, we picked up 7 points, won the aggregate by 34 (92-58), and as I found out the next day, our rink won the pots for the biggest rink win that weekend.
So there you go, Phar Lap, eat your enormous heart out.
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