Wonthella Gold fall to first defeat as Maroons close to within one in latest round of Batavia League action

Wonthella Gold has fallen to its first defeat of the season as it tightens up at the top of the Batavia League standings. Coming up against Wonthella Green, Gold were soundly beaten 67 shots to 50 thanks to a massive 32-shot third rink. Green dominated the first rink led by Tony O’Brien, taking it out 21 shots to 10 but Gold fought back in the second to tie the match at one rink a piece 26-10, taking a three-shot lead into the deciding rink. However Green never gave them a look-in, bowling their way to a 32-14 rink win to take the match and five points. Geraldton Gold came out on top in an intraclub battle with Geraldton Blue despite Blue taking the opening rink 21-15. Gold took out the second rink 21-14 to give them a slender one-shot advantage into the final game and Geoffrey Ellis led a commanding third-rink performance as Gold sealed the match with a 25-10 win to take home five points. Wonthella Maroon moved to within one point of league leaders Wonthella Gold with a 66-38 overall win but could not pick up a clean sweep, losing the first rink 14-17. They bounced back in the second 32-7 to effectively take out the match with a 22-shot lead heading into the third rink where they took a comfortable 20-14 win. Northampton managed to steal a point off Geraldton Red despite being thoroughly outplayed in their opening two rinks. Red took the first rink 24-10 and took the second 28-19 and were looking the goods to take home all six points on offer. But Northampton fought out a fantastic final rink and came up trumps 21-20 to make sure they did not leave the clash empty-handed. Mullewa was the only first-division team to take home a clean sweep on the weekend against the struggling Denison White. Denison have only one point to their name so far this season but they pushed Mullewa in the first rink, losing by a single shot 14-15. They put up a fight in the other two rinks but came up short, ultimately going down by 10 shots overall to leave them rooted at the bottom of the table. In the Women’s A division, Northampton came out on top in a titanic battle with Wonthella Maroon to grab their first win of the season. Maroon took the first rink by one shot 18-17 but Northampton would even the score with a 19-18 second rink to leave both teams even heading into the deciding third. Skipper Pauline Forrester led the side to a 24-17 victory as they got themselves an important victory to make sure they stayed in touch with the pack early on in the competition, moving to eight points. There was nothing to separate Dension and Geraldton Blue in the other match as both teams squared the ledger at 56 shots after three rinks. Denison won the opener 18-17 and the third 20-18 but Geraldton took the second 21-18 meaning the teams shared the match spoils with Denison strengthening their grip at the top of the ladder taking home 3.5 points to move to 19, seven ahead of Geraldton on 12 points.