Deniliquin Bowling Club’s Division 3 side suffered a heartbreaking loss in the Campaspe Valley Bowls Association’s midweek grand final on Friday.
The Deni side lost by only two points, after winning one rink and losing the other.
After 41 ends, Moama Red skip Sandra Harvey and her team faced a one-shot deficit, the result of the grand final hinging on the four bowls of the skips after the lead bowlers had done their bit.
At that point the Moama combination was holding two shots.
Harvey’s final bowl added a third to that tally and the team finished a 40-38 winner of the grand final match.
Five successive end wins for the Moama skip squared the ledger at 12 apiece after 14 ends before her Deniliquin opponent, Joy McArthur, claimed three shots on the 15th end to snatch back the lead.
McArthur held the advantage until end 19 when Harvey squared the match, then two shots for the Moama skip on the 20th end brought the overall score to 56-58 — in Deniliquin’s favour — with the final end to play.
And the rest is history, a 21-16 win for Harvey balancing the ledger after Moama’s Elaine Thomas was beaten by three on her rink.
Thomas faced Caryn Hillier in the grand final, the see-sawing match having five lead changes in the opening nine ends.
Hillier won the opening end, then Thomas took four shots on the second.
By end six Hillier was a two-shot leader, only to hand back the lead when Thomas took her fourth end win on the eighth.
By end 10 it was a four-shot Deniliquin rink lead, but in keeping with the pattern of the match Thomas replied with wins on ends 14, 15 and 17 to square the match at 18 apiece.
Hillier won three of the final four ends, making it 12-end wins for her afternoon, for a 22-19 win.