Last Thursday the victorious Yamba 3rd Div and 5th Div Pennants teams headed far afield to contest the State Pennants finals. The 3rd division team travelled to South Tamworth, and the 5th Div team headed south to Halekulani on the Central Coast.
The 3rd Div team lost its Round 1 game against Toongabbie 58 – 69 with a score of 1 to 9 points; they won their Round 2 game against Gloucester 67 – 49 with a score of 9 points to 1 giving them a progressive total of 10 points.
On Saturday morning they lost to Alexandria-Erskineville in Round 3 by 57 – 60 with a score of 1 ½ to 8 ½ points (Ian Parker’s team drew their rink 21 all, after being down 10 – 19, a great effort). This was just enough to get them into the quarter finals on Saturday afternoon. In the quarter final against Figtree they won all three rinks by 63 – 42 to progress into Sunday’s semi finals.
Sunday morning saw a titanic battle between Yamba and Scone. Brad Johnson’s team was last to finish with the master board showing Yamba leading by one shot at the start of their last end. They held their nerve and won the last end by one shot thereby defeating Scone by 56 – 54.
The final saw Yamba against Armidale City who had won their semi-final beating Toongabbie in a close match with a score of 60 – 57. Yamba started well and set up a small lead only to have Armidale City run them down and take the final with a score of 65 – 57. It was a great achievement by the Yamba team against what must have been a very strong side.
A special thanks to Jim Stone who did a superb job as team manager for the Pennants season and to Ros Moore who stood in as team manager for the State playoffs as Jim was unable to travel to Tamworth.
The 5th Div team were against Barraba in the 1st Round and had a tight win 64 – 62 (thanks to a great game from Bill Andrews’ team of Butch Cassidy, Cliff Hinton, Ron Smidt and Bill) with a score of 8 points to 2. Also mentioned in dispatches is Bruce Angel who displayed great skill in leading his team.
In Round 2 against Beresfield they won in an even tighter finish by 66 – 65 (again thanks to a great game by Bill Andrews’ team), and a score of 8 points to 2, giving them a progressive total of 16 points. They then played Paxton in Round 3 and were beaten in a very tight battle by 61 – 60 with a score of 8 ½ points to 1 ½. This gave them a total of 17 ½ points unfortunately Paxton had a total of 18 ½ points and so Yamba did not progress to the quarter finals. The final was won by Gymea over Batlow by 55 – 50.
Congratulations to both teams on your efforts in getting as far as you did, and we’ll celebrate with you on your return to Yamba.
Alan Turnbull