A quick start was needed to apply early pressure and is exactly what was delivered. Jimmy Barclay’s rink started the game with three 4’s in a row before a 6 on the 5th end to go ahead 18-2. Chris Carey’s rink had a steady start to jump to a 5-2 score after 4 ends before Harbord was able to level up with three singles by the 7th end. Kevin Bettman’s rink found the going a little harder against the very experienced Michael Sparozvich who was playing well to be down 2-11 by the 7th end. At the conclusion of those first set of 7 critical ends per rink St Ives led Harbord 25-21 after 21 ends. Chris Carey’s team then applied the pressure, winning 5 of the next 7 ends to reach the last third of the match 12-8. Jimmy’s rink continued to gain some nice multiples as the game settled down to reach 27-14 with a third of the game to go while Kevin’s team held their own with two big ends on the 13th and 14th ends to hold the score at 9-17 to Harbord meaning an overall St Ives lead on the big board of 48-39. Chris Carey’s rink then went on a strong run winning 6 of the next 7 ends to finish on with a very strong 24-10 victory and while Jimmy Barclay’s rink only managed to win 2 more ends they restricted Harbord to only singles in each winning end to finish 30-19 up while Michael Sparozvich continued to ramp up the pressure but ultimately the gap was too far to end with a convincing 65-53 St Ives win over Harbord. With a very strong victory from Willoughby Park over Manly Vale in the morning we saw Manly Vale then have to take on St Ives in a clash to decide the grand final participant to take on Willoughby Park on Sunday morning. As strong a start as St Ives had in the morning, we then saw a reversal on each rink in the afternoon. Kevin Bettman’s rink was able to break out to a strong lead early after dropping a 4 on the second end to lead 11 -5 after 7 and likewise Chris Carey’s started with a 5 and a 3 to reach 10-5 after 7 while Jimmy Barclay’s rink dropped some early multiples to be 4-11 after seven ends meaning St Ives held a slender lead at 25-21. You could be forgiven for having some confidence at this stage given it was the same score in the morning’s first 21 ends. Manly Vale had some other ideas. Manly Vale piled on the pressure winning 16 of the next 21 ends to lead 52-38 after 42 ends. With only a third of the game to go a 14 shot deficit is significant. With plenty of supporters watching St Ives needed to dig deep to stay in the contest and after a big gee up from Jimmy and people finding their voices and encouragement from the sidelines a complete change came over the game. St Ives then won 16 of the next 21 ends to finish the game matching what Manly Vale had done in the middle part of the game. St Ives then outscoring Manly Vale 33 shots to 7 to notch a remarkable comeback victory 71 to 60 to make their way to the grand final on Sunday. The teams and the supporters gathered again for the final game of the season with the winner to win the last zone 9 grade 4 pennant before the region name change and the opportunity to participate in the State Pennant finals. The hallmark of the campaign was good starts across the first 21 ends and the final was no different with St Ives jumping out to a 26-10 lead with Willoughby Park on |