The real interest, however, was in whether Scaddan-Norseman, who had to beat Esperance Gold to take the third spot in the finals, could do it. The answer came quickly. Although they eventually fought back to only go down by 19 shots, the Scaddan-Norseman combination never really recovered from the quick start of their opponents.

Two rinks did the main damage. Eric Donaldson’s rink from Gold raced away from Wally Wandenberghe’s boys and were 14 shots up at the 13th end. The final margin was only 6 shots, but the damage had been done.

It was no better for Ellison’s rink against John Niikkula’s Gold rink. Niikkula won easily in the end, by 11 shots. They were 10 shots up after only 7 ends and 17 up at the mid point of the contest. But for a couple of lazy ends towards the end where they dropped a 6 and a 5, the lads from Gold were far too good on the day.

The other two rinks saw closer affairs, with Scaddan-Norseman having one rink win, courtesy of Frank Stone’s rink who ran out 6 shot winners over Wayne Rodgers’ and his boys from Gold. There was never a lot in it, with Rodgers only one shot down playing the last end. A count of 5 put paid to any Gold hopes and Stone’s rink took the points.

The battle between Scaddan-Norseman’s Richard Major and Gold’s John Jarvis was almost the reverse of the previous match. No one got away to any sort of lead until the end when Jarvis’ team picked up 6 shots in the last 3 ends to win by 8 at the end of hostilities.

Unfortunately for Scaddan-Norseman, their season is over, whilst Esperance Gold get another chance at local rivals, Esperance Blue, in the semi-final this week.

Undefeated Condingup and second placed Esperance Blue fought out the other match of the weekend with pride being the only prize on the line after both had already secured finals berths before the final round. In yet another close contest, Condingup managed to be that little bit more consistent at the right times and won 3 of the 4 rinks, to register an 11 shot victory.