Indooroopilly almost sink Pirates
Newcomers determined to take Helensvale scalp in round three Indooroopilly almost caused an upset at Tweed Heads this afternoon, pushing powerhouse club Pine Rivers to the wire in a tense encounter at Queensland’s State Pennant Finals.
The debutant side, who had a disappointing hit-out against Souths Suburban in this morning’s opener (45-61), proved they were a force to be reckoned with when they clashed with the Pirates in round two.
Up on two rinks and leading by two shots with just three ends to go, the Brisbane club looked destined to overrun their star-studded rivals.
But Kurt Brown’s boys came to Pine Rivers’ rescue, clocking up a 12-shot win over Brett Kitchener to secure a narrow victory for the four-time champs, 61-56.
“We’re not surprised that we pushed Pine Rivers, they’re obviously a quality side, but we always expected to be competitive,” a disappointed Indooroopilly skip Greg Rolls said after the match.
“We were two shots up with just a few ends to go, but they’re a great side and they just came up with the goods at the right time.”
While the Brisbane club has no hope of reaching tomorrow’s final, they still have one round to play and they’re determined to get a win.
“We’ll be taking on another powerhouse club tomorrow in Helensvale, so we’ll give it another crack and do our best,” Rolls said.
“We really want to break the duck.”
After going down to Pine Rivers this morning, Helensvale, who have also won the championships four times since 2001, bounced back for a 63-47 victory over Souths Suburban this afternoon.
Souths’ Alan Howard enjoyed a 10-shot win over Anthony Fantini, 21-11, but the other two rinks were blowouts, with Helensvale’s Brett Wilkie and Anthony Kiepe racking up 22-9 and 30-17 wins respectively.
Meanwhile, North Toowoomba has emerged as top dog in Section 1, following their victory over Club Kawana this afternoon, 56-44.
In their second win of the day, the Bushrangers’ star skip Jason Grundon led from the front with a 25-13 defeat of Lee Fitzhenry.
Gavin Bradford edged past Kawana’s Nigel Melbourne 18-15, and while Geoff Westall struck back for the Sunshine Coast club, his 16-13 win over North Toowoomba’s Graeme Kath wasn’t enough to secure the points for Kawana.
Gladstone took the last win of the day, defeating Townsville Suburban on two rinks for a 74-60 win.
Round 2 Results:
Gladstone 74 def Townsville Suburban 60
Club Kawana 44 def by Nth Toowoomba 56
Indooroopilly 56 def by Club Pine Rivers 61
Souths Suburban 47 def by Club Helensvale 63
Progressive:
Section 1 – Nth Toowoomba 4+49, Club Kawana 2+26, Gladstone 2-14
Section 2 – Pine Rivers 4+12, Helensvale 2+9, Souths Suburban 2+0
