At the time of publication Rich River was still on the fourth rung of the ladder, but no points had been awarded for the Mathoura and Rochester match.
While results are pending from the Mathoura and Rochester match, which was called off with only a handful of ends remaining, more than three quarters of the ends were completed and points are expected to be awarded for the match.
Mathoura will earn 14 points for its weekend result at Rochester, having collected two of the three rink wins. That will take it to 36 points, one clear of Rich River.
At Tongala, meantime, the players continued despite the temperate teetering around the 38℃ mark.
The match started three hours early to avoid the predicted 40℃- plus conditions, an early start agreeing with the Rich River team which won the match 60-55 (15-1).
A thrilling end to two of the rinks created plenty of interest and probably took the players’ mind off the sweltering conditions.
Rich River skip Keith Hewitt produced a spectacular final two bowls to collect a 21-19 win against Jack Hammond, while Tongala skip Bradley Tinning collected two shots on his rink to tie the match with Colin Hayes.
The difference in the afternoon was Jason McCloy, who was a three-shot winner against Greg Lyon.
Rich River third, Gary Radford, had a bird’s-eye view of the final shots of the Hewitt and Hammond match.
“It was close all the way, we were two or three up, then they got to one shot up.
“On that final end they were holding one at the changeover and Keith turned my bowl in for the shot with his first bowl.
“He drew the absolute shot with the last bowl and we picked up two,” Radford said.
Hayes was up by two shots at the start of the last end against Tinning, but the in-form Tongala skip picked up two on the last end to tie the contest.
Hayes was in the skip role due to regular Peter Nesbitt attending his son’s 21st birthday in Melbourne, and was not available for the round.
Going into the Christmas break Tinning has won his last three and tied the weekend, having only lost the one match this season.
McCloy had his nose in front against Lyon for most of the day, ending up with a 19-16 win.
McCloy, Nesbitt and Hewitt were yesterday competing in the state trieples event at Bendigo.
Unfortunately they were put out in the semi-final, losing 21-11 to Bendigo East skipper Gregory Podesta’s rink.
In the other semi-final the family combination skipped by Nick Rowley also qualified for the final.
Radford said Rich River really needed to get that win yesterday to stay in touch at the Christmas break.
There will be eight rounds to finish the season following the Christmas break.
∎ Mathoura was leading two rinks prior to Saturday’s match at Rochester being called off under the heat rule.
Skips Mick Humphreys and David Hicks were both clear of their opposing skips when the Mathoura team manager called the match shortly after noon.
Rochester’s Garth Wiffen, playing as third to Peter Holzer, said as far as he knew points would be awarded for the match.
"We were told that the temperature was 39 degrees in Deniliquin and we had to finish,“ he said.
Peter Holzer’s rink was down by 10 shots to Humphreys, while Kelvin Wiffen was three shots in arrears of David Hicks when play was abandoned.
Richard Feuk was one shot clear of his opposing number, Rodney Wener.
Officials are still awaiting to confirm the 14-2 result in favor of Mathoura.
