A one-shot defeat to previously winless Rochester has not impacted on Stanhope’s ladder leading status in the Campaspe Playing Area’s division one competition.
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Unbeaten in three rounds before the weekend Stanhope lost to now-seventh-ranked Rochester 67-68 (3-13), despite winning one of the three rinks and drawing on another.
Greg Fitzpatrick retained his unbeaten status, but only just, when he drew with Richard Feuk 24 apiece.
Ben Fletcher made it three wins from four starts in his return to Campaspe’s top division with a seven-shot win, but the eight-shot loss of in-form Tim Hancock swung the result in Rochester’s favour.
Stanhope is now one of three teams which has a 3-1 win-loss record, sharing the top four with Moama, Tongala and Deniliquin.
Reigning premier Mathoura sits sixth on the ladder with one win, two defeats and a draw.
Fletcher won the opening seven ends and led 14-nil, before dropping eight of the next nine ends (including a five shot loss on end 16) to square the match with five ends to play.
Fletcher won four of those, including a five shot haul of his own, and won 25-18.
Fitzpatrick was similarly dominant in the early stages of his match, leading 14-4 after eight ends with a five shot haul on the seventh end. He dropped the next five ends (including a five on the 13th) to suddenly trail by three.
Despite winning six of the final eight ends he dropped seven shots on two ends late and had to be content with a draw.
Conversely Hancock trailed by 11 after 12 ends of his match, but recovered to be within two on the back of four successive end wins.
In the final five ends he dropped a pair of four-shot ends and lost the match 18-26.
· Tongala has quickly moved to equal top of the Campaspe Playing Area’s division one ladder after beating the last of the unbeaten teams, Moama Steamers, on Saturday.
Both Moama, which is now second, and top team Stanhope were unbeaten before the weekend.
The Steamers lost by 10 shots to Tongala and Stanhope was a one-shot loser to previously winless Rochester.
After four rounds only Rich River remains without a victory in the eight-team competition.
Stanhope, Moama and Tongala have 3-1 win-loss records, the Bulls being the in-form team with three wins on the trot.
Their 64-54 (14-2) win came courtesy of a 10-shot win from Glenn Fields and Brad Tinning’s five-shot win against Rod Werner.
Steve Hammond lost by five on the remaining rink to the only skip with a 4-0 record this season — Robert Young.
Brad Tinning’s rink of Connor Trewren, John Riedell and Peter Tinning produced the single biggest end result for the afternoon when they collected six shots on the ninth end to overcome a slow start.
They never surrendered the lead from that point and despite winning one less end for the contest won overall 24-19.
Fields, who has won three of his four matches this season, was involved in a match which featured 12 one-shot ends.
He took the lead on end eight and despite dropping five shots on the 15th end never gave up the advantage.
He finished in a rush by winning five of the final six ends for a 23-13 win.
The see-sawing match between Hammond and Young saw the Tongala skip trail by four after five ends, only to string together four successive end wins and lead by four after nine ends.
After dropping five shots on the 13th end the lead swung back to the Moama rink and despite the final eight ends being shared equally it was a 22-17 win for Young.
Tongala has reigning premier Mathoura this week, in a replay of the grand final it lost by seven shots last year — preventing a hat-trick of titles.
Mathoura has had a mixed bag to start the season, drawing with Rochester on 63 shots apiece, then losing by 52 shots to Moama and winning by seven at the weekend against Rich River.
· Stanhope won its match with Rochester by 11 shots on the back of a 12-shot win from Jennifer Crilly.
The 59-48 (14-2) win has the team sitting sixth with a 2-2 win-loss record, facing two teams outside the top four in the next fortnight.
Both remaining rinks were close, Robert Amrstrong winning by one with recruit Brad Robinson playing as his third and Andrew Morris losing by one with division one regular Jorge Maxwell as his third.
· Tongala lost its first game of the season when it was humbled to the tune of 32 shots by fourth-ranked Moama Steamers.
The Bulls lost all three rinks, even the experienced four of Geoff Tinning, Geoff Vistarini, Phil Cooper and Noel West unable to get the team on the board.
· Stanhope now sits inside the top four in division four after a 13-shot win against Ky Valley View.
Debbie Hoye and Norm Cheong notched their third wins of the season in the 60-47 (15-1) win, serving as lead bowlers for Graeme Nurse to beat Ken Black 21-15.
Ken Hoppner accounted for the experienced Graeme Topp by seven shots, while the remaining match between Stanhope’s Anthony Trist and Valley View skip Rod Donohue was a draw.
· John Gibbs and Ian Douglas had wins in the division five match with Rochester as the team shored up its spot in the top four.
Douglas trailed by one after nine ends before piling on 11 shots in four ends to lead by 10.
He built that lead to 12 before losing the last four ends to scrape home by one.
By end nine of Gibbs’ match he led 16-4, but won only four of the final 12 ends to eventually win 23-16.
Kyabram Free Press and Campaspe Valley News editor