How they will finish
1. Stirling
2. Bedford
3. Bayswater
4. Yokine
5. Safety Bay
6. Sorrento
7. Midland
8. Nth Beach
9. Warwick
10. Hollywood
March 28, 2010
REVIEW SEMI-FINALS
Premiership ladder
Rink statistics
SORRENTO OR MIDLAND?
Promotion to One White awaits the winner of the Sorrento Swans and Midland-Morrison clash at Yokine today.
Both were impressive in the finals yesterday at Sorrento.
The Swans will go in as favourites, after accounting for Midland recently, but the Midland boys showed yesterday in their two wins that they are fired up for this game, with the enthusiasm of their players and supporters remininiscent of their football team's 1961 success against the odds.
You can rest assured there will be a sizeable gallery of Bombo Valleyites taking an interest in proceedings at the kennel today.
But they won't have it all their own way.
Sorrento have been progressing up the charts in recent years, and will not be wasting this opportunity.
My tip:
Sorrento.
FIRST SEMI-FINAL:
MIDLAND- 101 (7 ½ ) D STIRLING 64 ( ½ )
Staples(sk.), Snell, Crawford, Dobb.......................23
Fiamengo(sk.),Ilijich, Gojak, Sharp......................17
Natalotto(sk),Mladineo, West, Normandale..........18
Losinjanin(sk.),M.Martinovich, Goodlich, Radalj..18
Rollnik(sk.), Marino, Willis, Erceg.......................34
Marinovich, Radamiljac, Yaksich, Bilcich............11
Southern(sk.), Coffey, Waller, Barron..................28
Erceg(sk.), Poggi, Bulich,Ursich............................18
Midland-Morrison were always in the box seat in this contest.
With Joe Rollnik, Ben Marino, Willis, and Uncle Mick Erceg in fine touch, Peter Marinovich's Stirling four were steamrolled, losing by twenty three, giving the other three rinks a mountain to climb.
Alan Southern played some telling shots also in his ten shot win over Stirling's Mick Erceg rink in a game that was closer than the scores indicate. Leaders John Ursich and Mark Barron had an engrossing tussle, but it was a couple of fruitful ends for the Midland four that proved the difference.
Ante Losinjanin and Macca Natalotto are tough competitors, and they gave nothing away when they fronted each other. The Losinjanin rink provided some light for Stirling on a bleak day with a hardfought draw, but the Bombo Valley boys deserved their win.
Stirling have suffered from the task of fielding two first division sides, a job that not only the Jones Street club has found to be a hard one this season. They bow out of this season's finals race, but will have their first white side to cheer on in their finals campaign today.
SECOND SEMI-FINAL:
SORRENTO 96(8) D NORTH BEACH 71(0)
Crow(sk.), Linford, O'Donohoe, Sanders..............22
Coles(sk.), Schrauf, Jones, Palfrey.......................15
Kuziela(sk.), Cramond, Bywater, Hutchinson......21
Werndly(sk.), Dempsey,Dyson, Hill......................19
Brown(sk.), Partington, Olive, Gray.....................22
Vitale(sk.), G.Crosthwaite, Bartle, Gregson.........18
Anderson(sk.), Hammond, Bone, Murray............31
Devenish(sk.), Gmeiner, Hunter, E.Retallack......19
Sorrento won on all rinks to go straight into the grand final.
This column's forecast of the Kuziela and Vitale rinks to be vital for their respective sides didn't quite pan out that way, with neither having a big say in proceedings.
The Blues rink of Brian Werndly, Mal Dempsey, Dyson, and Greg Hill were given the contract of shutting down the dangerous Ron Kuziela four, and did so, losing a close one by two, after trailing badly initially, despite the efforts of Sorrento third, Col Cramond.
Mike Vitale has been one of the competition's top skippers this season, but on Saturday he found himself in the unfamiliar situation of being twelve behind after eleven ends. To their credit, the rink that the Blues were counting on lifted, but were unable to bridge the gap, going down by five to John Brown's men. The early damage was mainly due to the close bowls put in by lead Mal Gray and second Wayne Olive, who also played some telling weighted shots.
The Swans were lagging behind early, but the rinks of Alan Anderson, John Hammond, Richard Bone, and Geoff Murray and Peter Crow, Ian Linford, Jarrad O'Donohoe, and John Sanders broke the shackles midway through the contest.
Down seven-fifteen after twelve ends, Anderson grabbed a big seven from Geoff Devenish's Beach boys, and continued the run, twenty four shots over the final nine ends catapulting them to a twelve shot win.
Crow's four were behind by eleven after nine ends. With the skip loudly geeing up his charges, and O'Donohoe playing his best game of the season, the Sorrento four dominated, winning eleven of the last twelve ends, to prevail by seven.
PRELIMINARY FINAL:
MIDLAND 86 (7) D NORTH BEACH 58(1)
Southern(sk.), Coffey, Waller, Barron..................16
Coles(sk.), Schrauf, Jones, Palfrey........................18
Staples(sk.), Snell, Crawford, Dobb.......................30
Devenish(sk.), Gmeiner, Hunter, E.Retallack.......11
Natalotto(sk),Mladineo, Sutcliffe, Normandale.....19
Vitale(sk.), G.Crosthwaite, Bartle, Gregson............14
Rollnik(sk.), Marino, Willis, Erceg......................21
Werndly(sk.), Dempsey,Dyson, Hill.....................15
Midland-Morrison have completed a memorable day and a fine season by qualifying for the grand final, and an opportunity of promotion to one white.
The Blues ended a disappointing Saturday. The consistency and fight that had marked their season deserted them yesterday, with the win by the John Coles rink the only one they had all day.
It was a good win by Coles, over the in form Alan Southern four.
But the writing was on the wall from the start, with the boys from the valley on a mission, and the enthusiasm displayed by the Midland combination was undeniable.
Aaron Staples got his revenge for a ten shot loss to Geoff Devenish at their last meeting by blowing the final apart with a nineteen shot mauling. With sound contributions from John Snell, Daniel Crawford, and Dale Dobb dobbing them on, they were always on top.
Macca Natalotto ended an uncustomary bad day for Mike Vitale, after a good tussle, finishing five in front, while Joe Rollnik completed a productive day at the office with a six shot advantage over Brian Werndly.
The Beach boys picked a bad day to go off the boil.
They went into the finals looking a big chance, but never fired.
RON HEAD
.