The match of the round, third-ranked Deniliquin against fourth-ranked Moama, lived up to its billing as there was just two shots separating the teams on completion of the three rinks.
Deniliquin’s win keeps it within striking distance of top-team Rochester and second-ranked Echuca.
Moama skip Paul Walton won his battle with Deniliquin’s Glenn Thomson 21-14, but Geoff Halden and Alan Jones were beaten as Deniliquin walked away with a 51-49 (14-2) victory.
In completing the weekend’s round, all eight Division two teams have now played each other once.
Rochester, Echuca and Deniliquin are only separated by 10 pennant points, with some breathing space back to fourth-ranked Moama.
During the weekend Rochester beat sixth-ranked Mathoura, in spite of losing two rinks and now has a 6-1 win-loss record from seven rounds.
The 16-shot win (61-45, 12-4) came after Rochester skip Brian Jones, along with Graeme Chambers, Robert Knight and Brian Trengove, registered a 32-6 win against Mathoura skip Paul Clear.
Despite the three-shot loss of Tim Quinlan and Don Gillies’ seven-shot defeat, Rochester was a comfortable winner.
Second-ranked Echuca had an 11-shot win against second-bottom Deniliquin RSL, Echuca skips Ian Whiting and Stephen McCartney both winners against the RSL outfit.
Echuca’s 62-51 (14-2) win has it only four points back in second spot on the ladder.
Rich River was an 11-shot winner against Tongala, but certainly did not have things all its own way.
Hugh Davies’ 30-9 result against Tongala skip Mark Golds was the difference, Davies combining with Peter Moon, Ron Bentley and John Langley for the game-changing result.
Tongala skips Steven Usher (21-15 against Toni Beck) and Kelvin Walsh (20-16 against Rich River skip Gery Devlin) were winners in the match.
Tongala has had just the one win this season at the halfway mark of the competition.
∎ Moama’s domination of the Division three Campaspe weekend competition continued during the weekend with its 25-shot win against Mathoura.
Stuart Sutton and Barry Cuttriss were the Moama skips to register wins, while on the remaining rink it was an 18-all draw between Moama’s Roy Jackson and Mathoura skip Raymond Murphy.
Moama won the match 67-42 (15-1).
Second-ranked Lockington beat Rich River by nine shots, while third-ranked Elmore had a narrow escape against Rochester in a three-shot result.
In the remaining match Deniliquin stayed in touch with the top four with a 14-shot win against Echuca.
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