Rochester’s second win of the Campaspe midweek division one season came at the expense of the more-fancied Deniliquin, which started the weekend more than 50 pennant points clear of its opponent.
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Before the weekend Rochester had struggled, its only win was another surprise against top-team Moama.
Deniliquin remains third on the ladder, well behind Moama and Echuca, but Rochester now has fifth ranked Rich River in its sights.
The two teams will meet next weekend, on the Rochester rink, when the club will have the chance to get even closer to lifting itself off the bottom of the ladder.
Rochester had just the one winning rink, Helen Holzer’s 19-12 win against Linda Harris, but it was enough for a 54-52 (12-4) result.
Holzer, bowling with Robert Clayton, Heather Curnick and Mervyn Harvey, influenced the overall result after Rochester skips Margaret Knight and Kaye Barker were narrow losers.
Knight lost by one shot to Deniliquin’s Joanne Bovell, while Barker, Peter Holzer, Kevin Hall and Jenny Major were four-shot losers to Jill Grimshaw.
- Echuca has closed the margin at the top of the Campaspe midweek division one bowls competition to just one pennant point after its dominant display at Moama on Friday.
In spite of the 31-shot win, Echuca is still ranked second to Moama after eight completed rounds of the season.
Echuca won all three rinks and secured a 73-42 (16-nil) win.
The teams are well clear of third-ranked Deniliquin, which suffered a shock loss to bottom-of-the-ladder Rochester on Friday at Deniliquin.
In the remaining match a seven-shot win by Rich River against fourth-ranked Mathoura has allowed it to close to within just four pennant points of the top four.
Moama will be under further pressure this Friday when it confronts third-ranked Deniliquin, while Echuca will enter its round nine match against Mathoura as a clear favourite.
Echuca skip Kerryn Evans’ 15-shot win against Marilyn Stephenson was the higlight for her team, combining with Philip Thorn, Rhonda Gallagher and Ivan Hicks for a 28-13 win.
The star-studded Echuca rink set the tone of the match, which was followed by a 12-shot win for Roma Opie against Sandra Connolly.
With no Cass Millerick in the Friday team for Moama, Denise Pappin stepped into the skip’s role and was a 15-19 loser to Echuca’s Leica Roney.
Roney and Pat Schram, who had played off in the Echuca women’s singles championship only days earlier, combined with Robyn Tooley and Sue Proctor to make it a clear sweep for the Echuca club.
- Toni Beck’s six-shot rink win for Rich River was the difference in the fifth-ranked team’s third win of the eight-week-old season.
In spite of the 3-6 win-loss record, Rich River is still within sight of the top four.
It was a 62-55 (14-2) winner as Margaret Griffiths backed up Beck’s win with a 18-15 win of her own.
With Trevor Nagorcka as third, the pair took the victory against Pam Limbrick and it was enough to cancel out the two-shot defeat of Elizabeth Easther to Christine Taylor.
Next week fifth-ranked Rich River has bottom team Rochester and fourth-ranked Mathoura faces second-placed Echuca.
The likely result, a spot in the top four of the top midweek division for Rich River with seven rounds of the season remaining.
- Lockington caused the boilover of the round in Campaspe midweek division two competition when it beat second-ranked Echuca in their round eight match.
Lockington, before the weekend, had won just seven of its eight games and was on the bottom rung of the eight-team ladder.
It handed that celler-dweller status to Ky Valley View when the Lockington team was a five-shot winner, 56-51 (14-2) against Echuca.
Echuca managed only the one winning rink when Marie Malone was a 25-19 winner, bowling alongside Lyn Brown, Lorelle Opthoog and Belinda Chong.
On the remaining rinks Heather Trotter lost to Lockington’s Annette Brereton by a shot and Wilma Curnow was a 10-shot loser to Phyl McFarlane.
- Rich River was among three teams in the top four to suffer a shock defeat, fifth-ranked Elmore beating the third-ranked team by three shots.
Echuca, Rich River and fourth-ranked Tongala were all beaten during the weekend in a series of upset results as top-of-the-ladder Moama moved further ahead.
Rich River’s 58-55 (14-2) loss came after only Pat Hayes, Margaret Young, Robert Thomas and Bererley Mills could rustle up a win against Elmore’s Eileen Burke.
The Rich River club’s remaining skips, Noeline King and Pat Sehestedt, suffered defeats.
- Tongala’s 16-shot loss to sixth-ranked Rochester came after only Carol Cardwell could manage a rink win.
Cardwell was a one-shot winner against Rochester’s Carol Cakebread, the result having only a marginal impact on the final scoreline of a 66-50 (14-2) Rochester win.
Lyn Moon was a 10-shot winner against Tongala skip Elaine Hosking and Serena Sholl’s second Rochester rink win underlined its domination of the afternoon.
- In the remaining match of the round Moama registered a one-sided result with a 47-shot win against Ky Valley View.
Bev Trengrove was dominant in combination with Carmel Simpson, Terry Thomson and Pam McLoy.
They beat Bev Lyon 32-16, while Deana Hogan (24-12) and Beryl Bell (32-13) were also dominant on their rinks.
Moama is now 33 points clear on top of the ladder with an enormous 229-shot differential.
It has given up 122 less shots than any other team in the competition after eight rounds of the season.
- There were no surprises in Campaspe midweek division three competition as the top three teams of the competition all registered wins.
Between them Moama Green (top), Moama Red (second) and Deniliquin (third) dropped only two of the six rinks contested on the weekend.
It was not all one-way traffic for the Moama Green outfit, however, winning by just one shot against fourth-ranked Mathoura.
Its 38-37 (12-2) win came as Margaret Meulenkamp was a 23-19 winner against Gayle Kerr, and in spite of the three-shot loss of Susan Abraham.
Moama Red was a 12-shot winner, 47-35 (12-2) against second-bottom Rich River as Sandra Harvey, Lyn Snell, Karen Brennan and Elizabeth Doidge produced a brilliant 33-7 result against the rink of Rich River skip Stephanie Shine.
The Moama Red win came despite the 14-shot win of Rich River skip Rose Wheeler, who together with John James, Christine Simsin and Kerryn Sparks was dominant against Elaine Thomas.
Kyabram Free Press and Campaspe Valley News editor