Heroes’ welcome: Mathoura and Deniliquin both return victorious

The Deni Diggers claimed their second grand final week in a win, following up a Midweek Pennant win on Tuesday with a Division 4 Weekend Pennant win on Saturday.

Getting to the grand final was a win in itself for the Mathoura Club, which had never appeared in a Division 1 grand final in its 56 year history.

Mathoura lost on two of three rinks, but the result from the side skipped by Peter Holzer was large enough to secure an overall win for the ‘Cutters, 62 shots to 55.

Holzer, Dennis McHarry, Peter Pangrazio and Ricky Ireland came up against a determined Tongala side, but they showed class and skill.

The Mathoura side finished the day with 26 shots, while Tongala could only manage 11 in reply.

Four points separated the teams on rink two, with Tongala just edging forward.

The combination of skip Mick Humphreys, Brett Quilty, Lindsay Franklin and Arthur Murphy added 19 shots to Mathoura’s total score.

Tongala won with 23 shots.

Rink three was another close affair, with only eight shots separating the sides.

For Mathoura, Jason McCly skipped Helen Holzer, Paul Clear and David Kicks to an impressive 17 shots.

But Tongala were slightly better, finishing with 21.

The club was sent off to the grand final, and returned home, with great support from the local community.

Students at Mathoura Public School and Mathoura Preschool made signs for the team, which Clear said gave the players a “huge boost”.

In the Division 4 match-up, the RSL Diggers came up against home side Echuca.

Deni came from a long way back to edge out their opponents in a thrilling contest.

With 48 ends completed, Echuca held a strong lead 51 to 35.

But a great resurgence across all the Diggers’ rinks saw them totally dominate the closing stages, to come back from a 16 shot deficit to claim a memorable victory, 59 shots to 54.

Bruce Clancy’s rink were trailing 8-24 after 16 ends but rallied superbly to take the final nine shots on their rink.

The teams led by John Wilson and Wayne Bradley also finished full of running, taking another 15 late shots over the final ends across their respective rinks.

Such was the Digger’s dominance as they closed the contest out, Echuca only picked up a further three shots across the final 15 ends while the Diggers added 24.

The win was a just reward for the team which came from fourth spot on the ladder to claim the flag against favourites Echuca, who had enjoyed a dominant season.

Echuca had only dropped a single game in the home and away fixtures.

Rink results are as follows:

John Wilson (s), Paul Connor, Graeme Gordon and Callan Glenn defeated Echuca, 20-12.

Wayne Bradley (s), Rod Reid, Ian Chessells and Gaye Goodwin defeated Echuca, 22-17.

Bruce Clancy (s), Peter Todd, Neville Austin and Ella Hipworth lost to Echuca, 17-25.