Over the last three weeks Dimboola 1 has ridden the roller coaster of hope in Wimmera Weekend Bowls Division 1, and they are still rolling.

Against all odds they defeated top team Horsham City 1, by 25 shots, winning just one rink. But, that was a big win and got Dimboola two points for the rink and ten for the win. That 12 points got them to within 16 points of fourth side Coughlin Park 1.

Now it's a longshot, but if Dimboola 1 wins every rink and gets the 16 points in the last round against City 2, and Coughlin Park 1 can't wrangle a point against second side Nhill 1, Dimboola will replace the Parkers in the finals on percentage.

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The phones will be working overtime between Nhill and the City rink where the matches will be played, but the intrigue will last till late Saturday afternoon.

So how did Dimboola do it?

In an unexpected way, no surprise that Kevin Clyne and Daniel Gloury skipped their rinks to 10 and 1 shot wins for City 1 team, but on the other rink Hux Mitchell took a form line of 10 wins and 2 losses as skip for Horsham City, and his opponent Rob Pyers had a 5 win and 7 loss record across the season.

It was a remarkable 44 - 8 win to Greg Cook, Shannon Williams, Judith Albrecht and skipper Pyers against the well-performed Mitchell rink.

Back in Horsham, Coughlin Park was doing well against Horsham City 2. Basher Beazley won by 23, and Craig Decker's rink got up by 25. Mick Ellis' rink was down by two on the last end but holding three shots which would have completed the equation for Coughlin Park. With the last bowl of the day City 2 skipper Graeme Mcdonald went wide. It covered more ground than the early settlers, but managed to cause enough contact to take the shot and deny Coughlin Park 1 those coveted 2 points.

So Dimboola is still alive and Coughlin Park cannot breathe easy.

Up at Nhill a great battle took pace between Nhill 1 and Kaniva 1 - second versus eight on the ladder but a one shot win to the underdogs 67-66.

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On a day when many of the competition's best performed Skippers and rinks went down; the Alan King rink lost just its second match for the season , going down 23-25 to Paul Pearson, Lorraine Coad, Mal Coutts and skipper Adrian Coad.

The other rinks were 8 up to Kaniva's Col Maddern and a 9 shot win to Nhill's Sparra Lynch team.

The Kaniva people would have been floating on air after the big land sale the day before, but I reckon they would have been pretty pumped to knock off their northern neighbours.

In the other match Golf 1 did it comfortably against Sunnyside 1, with the biggest winner the Trevor Wood, Craig Bennett, Brad Robinson and Danny Schmidt team 35-14.Golf have a slight chance of pinching the double chance, and after this round you would never say never to any possibility

Ladder After Round 13:

1. City 1. 142 points

2. Nhill 1. 132.

3. Golf 1. 125.

4. Coughlin Park 1. 120.

5 Dimboola 1. 104.

6. City 2. 76.

7. Sunnyside 1. 74.

8 Kaniva 1. 59

In Division 2 three teams are safe in the four, the next three have a chance to take fourth spot, and the next two teams Natimuk and Goroke can't make the four but play sides in the four and could have a hand in shaping the finals places, as they have both defeated top sides at different stages.

Biggest winners of the round were Horsham City 3, they beat top side Nhill 2 by two shots, a 2 shot win to 'the President' Jeff Fritsch, but that was Nhill's only success as Duncan Bottoms was on top by 1 and Helen Roll rolled her rink to a 3 shot victory.

What made City's win more significant was that fourth side Dimboola went down to ninth-placed Coughlin Park by two shots to let the City slickers leapfrog the Roos.

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That two shot win for City and the two-shot loss for Dimboola contributed to a 20 point-plus turnaround on the table of points. For the Parkers, leader Daryl Giddings had his pink Panthers pointing perfectly to provide precise position for their passenger playing second and Denis Wade and Chris Oliver.

Sunnyside 3 kept themselves in the game by defeating the formerly second placed Golf 2 team. The KWs, Ken Walters and Kevin Walsh, skipped their rinks to 3 shot wins for Golf, but Paul Southcott, Bob Ferguson, Col Gebert and Skipper Robert Hetherton won 30-19 to see Sunnyside up 73-68 overall.

Sunnyside 2 went out to Natimuk and got the job done on what can be a tough place for visitors. There is no tougher assignment than playing Bob Pritchett's rink and once again he delivered to win by 14, but with Dick Hood skipping his team home 7 shots against Nati's Charlie Brown combo and Heidi Holtkamp, Rod Skurrie, Ray Pommeroy and John Ackland winning by 33 it was all over bar the shouting for the Sunnyside team who ascend to second on the ladder

Goroke took all three rinks comfortably against Coughlin Park 3. Geoff Lowe warmed up for his champion of champions final with four-shot win on his rink. Hughie Caldow got up by 3, and fellow Edenhope bowler Bruce Ackland lead for Barry Crick, Joe Burns and skipper Polly Robinson in that rinks 17 shot win for a 77-53 win to team from magpie land.

Division 2 ladder

1. Nhill 2. 157 points

2. Sunnyside 2. 128

3. Golf 2. 125

4. City 3. 117

5. Dimboola 2. 113

6. Sunnyside 3. 109

7. Goroke. 100

8. Natimuk. 100

9. Coughlin Park 2. 65

10 Coughlin Park 3. 26

In Division 3 three of the top four went on their merry way, but second side Nhill 3 went down to third side Golf 3 to cap off a losing day for Nhill's top three sides, who all sit first or second on the ladder.

Frank Coyle, Wayne Farr, Bill Phelan and Esme Wood (s) were the biggest winners for the Golf side with a 24-10 margin in the 63-40 score line.

City 4 got up by 17 over Coughlin Park 4, with 15 of those shots coming from the team of Allan Wollerman, Eric Miatke, Stumpy Kearns and skipper Ian Fisher.

Sunnyside 4 went up to Nhill and had a seven-shot win over Nhill 4, and once again it was Brian Simonds rink which did best for the Siders. This week Loraine Palmer lead, Paul Dillon second and Max Maher skipping combined in their fifteen shot win.

Division 3 Ladder

1. City 4. 130 points

2. Nhill 3. 121

3. Golf 3. 115

4. Kaniva 2. 94

5 Sunnyside 4. 70

6. Nhill 4. 57

Coughlin Park 4. 37.

In the Champion of Champions Loma Wallis defeated Esme Wood 25-20 in the ladies and Geoff Lowe defeated Cliff Unger 25-16 to take I believe his fourth Champion of Champions men's title.

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