After the start Basso have had they are putting in the hard yards early to get themselves out a huge pickle & have now won 3 from 3 against some good sides including this game v Roosters who are very strong at home. What makes it even stranger is they have done it the difficult way winning 3 of 4 Away games but only winning 1 from 4 at home. Basso are 3rd best team on the road after Sorrento 100% & Osborne Pk 80%, which is impressive for a side sitting 7th.
Cockburn will be disappointed again this week after not maximising these home games as they only pick up 2 wins from 5 home games. The issue there is now they need to do what the Lions have done & go on the road in search of extra points to get them out of trouble while now sitting 8th. That R10 game away to South Perth now looks like a huge game for the Roosters & must be a double pointer game for both sides. Unfortunately Cockburn have been very close on the road but are still running 0-3 which needs to change if they can't convert the home games.
Sokol v Krstic was a very close game with only the bare minimum separating both sides in the end as Krstic wins it on the last to stop Sokol's recent mini run on games. TePania got back to business v O'Sullivan as he broke the losing streak to score late on in a low scoring contest where they won by 6 shots. Erceg needed a win & got it convincingly with a 8 shot win over Cockburn's best rink over the last few weeks in Marevich & suddenly Basso were game on for a big Agg win & a valuable 6pts. Then Musulin lost to Revell in a good contest by 5 shots & Basso pick up another rink & head home with 7pts & keep the Roosters to one of the lowest scores at home in years. Their 'average' home score last year was a massive 97shots so to keep them to 65 will always give the away team a chance to pickup the Agg.

Huge result for the River Rats is going to the fortress at Wanneroo & snatching a massive away win by 5 shots as there was some big margins bouncing around all day across all rinks.
I all started with Petchells rink getting back in the saddle of winning ways as they took a strong Ward rink by 8 shots. That's only 1 from 5 for Ward's side now while running an aggregate of -43 shots. Gollan was then quick to pounce on the opportunities from Denny after the Roo's had that Costello change & Gollan side won by 9 shots. With the Roo's in trouble up step the 2 heavy weights & Buchholz pulled 7 of those shots back off Rossmoyne against Lang. And Turra grabbed another 5 shots off Jervies to now give him a handy 4 in a row but the 2 dominant rinks for both sides did the damage. Thats 0 wins from 6 for Jervies which is probably Rossmoyne's only concern & 0 from 4 for Lang but the big hitters did the damage. It was the River Rats who just edged the key battles to take a big 6pts & drive them up into a great 3rd position going into the break.

Probably not as convincing as the 2nd placed team would expect from a easy away game but the Saints managed to pulll it together in the 2nd half to push 3 of the rinks to grab 7pts. Saints held them well for most of the day & there wasn't a lot in it until the last few ends.
Mitchell v Thorn went the way of the Saints side who needed a good win to steady the ship as they cruised to a 10 shot win. Sanders had it difficult v Weir as they understood quite quickly why the Weir rink are one of the better ones in the Division as they bounced back after their first lose in a while last week. That's 4.5 from 8 for the Weir rink as they continue to improve.
When you think Barker's skippering baptism kiss of death couldn't possibly get any harder, he goes & draws DiGiuseppe.......he must of thinking what he has done in a past life to have this start to his skippering game this season.....in his first 3 weeks he's now had Lander/TePania/DiGiuseppe which is basically all Top 5 skippers but yet he's only -3shots across those 3 games which very few could match that stat so Kudo's this week is back over to Barker's rink & maybe 2020 bring better luck!! DiGuiseppe's rink of Allan/Boyd/Carmichael keep on trucking & have probably exceeded their own expectations of sitting 7 from 8 wins heading into Christmas. Dawson v Dewson was the shining light for the Mavericks as they grabbed a valuable 1pt & 5 shot win over Dewson & broke their winning run as they were looking for 5 in a row & so was Pasalich.
On a lighter note the 'other' Pasalich (Andrew) made his debut in 1 White under Weirs rink as the Pasalich clan multiplies for the Saints. I was going to invite Mark Pasalich over for dinner to congratulate his 5 in a row if he won this weekend but then had 2nd thoughts after wondering how many other Pasalichs might arrive on the same 1 invite?! (joking). Good to see them bring their game back to 1 White & Saints clearly are a stronger side for it.

This was a big game for Warwick & they tried to stay close for most of the game but the better side prevailed late on as Sorrento ran out comfortable winners by 25 shots & grabbed a big 7pts away as a bonus.
The shining light for Warwick was seeing Post find some mojo v Rixom & knock off that 3 game losing streak. We might see a Sorrento skipper lose 2 in a row this year but Rixom is there now but I doubt that'll last too much longer before they're back winning.
The big game of the Round was Borkowski v Lander where to the 2 big guns went head to head to see who takes the top honours. A win for Borkowski puts them back into the Top 5 put Lander's side took them easy enough by 7shots to hold the top honours spot on the skippers ladder. Thats 8 in a row for them with an average winning margin of about 10 shots. Every week will get a little more difficult to hold that perfect record but they are going superbly. Ledingham v Butler was a little blow out as the Swans side cruised to a 16shot margin & in doing so wrapped up the Agg in the process.
Hinge also hasn't had a big W in 5 games & Ledingham is 2 from 6, so Warwick just need a few extra ends to convert those close loses to wins & they'll be bouncing back.

Both teams badly needed the win here & it was the Kats who got the Agg & plenty of cream on top with a huge scoeline. We've had a few 96, a 99 & a few 100 but nobody had broken the 100 shot mark & the Kats blew through that comfortably here, to 115shots, with some huge scoring on 2 rinks where they got 72 shots from just those 2 rinks.
It started with Yates' rink grabbing an 8 on the 3rd end, followed by a 5 & ‘nek minnit’ it was 21-3 after a hand full of ends against a struggling Calvo rink. Calvo’s front end dig deep & they did come back in the 2nd half. They got it back to about a dozen after Yates' early call for a Calvo taxi (can’t drive) back fired as Yates had a few waywardly driving pineapple misses, giving Millers a few big scores & a chance to get some numbers back. Unfortunately the score blew out again late on to 18 shots for 34-16. Yates continues his good form & I’m sure he’s happy to tell you all about it if you don’t already know!!
Knapp v Kelly was a very tight game & the Miller rink probably would of won this one only for some fortuitous bowls from the Kats back end but they got over by 3 in the end & in doing so added to the losses for Kelly, now 6 losses in a row when skippering & no wins in 1 White this season but hopefully that changes soon as there was a few close ones. Knapp needed this one as it was only 2 from 6 up to R7 but now its sitting better with 4 from 8.
The 3rd rink was somewhat similar in that South Perth were close all day where Fewings was playing probably Millers best rink in McRae & Co, probably 10,000 collective games between the experienced South Perth 4 as they used all that experience & smarts to just edge Fewing's side very late with a cheeky 5 on the last to grab a critical point for the Millers.
Unfortunately for Roelofs, Stokes wasn't so generous with keeping the score close as they touched Roelofs up quite badly with a huge 26 shot win (38-12) & I think that now takes the top prize for the largest 1 White win/loss from any rink for the season so far, so the Kats will enjoy that percentage booster.
Kardinya go into the break with a well needed 7pts & jump into the prized safety of 5th. South Perth selectors will probably use the break to regroup & come up with the master plan on how to get 6-7 wins from the next 10 games, just get to safety. Tough but not impossible, especially since 6 of those 10 are at home.