The finals began on Saturday in Murray Playing Area Weekend Pennant.
The Cobram teams involved were the division four and five sides.
Both games were played at Barooga in conditions fitting for the last Saturday of summer.
Cobram division four had done all the heavy lifting early in the season, but did not have the perfect run into the finals.
Its last win was against the same opponent, Numurkah Golf, on December 2.
Cobram finished third and Numurkah Golf fourth, meaning the winner of this game was removed from finals contention.
Cobram’s Andrew Rushby (skip), Lynda Gallyot (third), Jeanette Liersch (second) and Steve Paganoni (lead) lined up against a Numurkah Golf team skipped by Ian Hocking.
Rushby’s outfit hit the ground running, leading 7-0 after three ends and had an eight-shot advantage after five ends with the score 9-1.
Numurkah Golf showed why it was playing finals as it gained some momentum and closed the gap to a single shot after nine ends with the score 9-8.
“Rusha’s” team was more consistent than Hocking’s charges as the game continued.
Over the final eight ends, Cobram scored 14 shots to Numurkah Golf’s two.
The final rink scores were Rushby 27 to Hocking 13.
On the adjoining rink, Brenda Smethurst (skip), Adrian Lindsay (third), Dale Giblin (second) and John Taylor (lead) represented Cobram well in their outing against the Numurkah Golf team skipped by Colin Hicks.
For most of this game Cobram was the more commanding team, leading 5-0 after two ends, 9-3 after six ends, 16-6 after 12 ends, and 24-8 after 16 ends.
Numurkah Golf kicked back late, winning five of the last six ends, including three shots, four shots and five shots over the last three ends, respectively.
However, it was a case of “too little, too late” for Numurkah Golf as the final scores read Smethurst 27 to Hicks 21.
The overall scores were Cobram 54 to Numurkah Golf 34.
This now means Cobram will play Numurkah in the preliminary final at Cobram this Saturday.
Numurkah went down to Katandra West, 31-49 in their second semi-final encounter.
The winner of Cobram and Numurkah will meet Katandra West in the grand final in a fortnight at Berrigan.
In division five, Cobram, in second place on the ladder, played Numurkah, which finished in top spot.
The winner of this game earned direct passage to the grand final, while the loser plays another game to determine its fate.
This was a game that exemplified the teamwork involved in a victory and the importance of looking at the overall score and not being focused on the individual team result.
In the match-up between Cobram’s Barb Turner and Numurkah’s Helen Brache, Brache and her team were in a great position after 13 ends, with the score 10-21.
From then on, Cobram controlled the mat, although only managing to score singles except on the 19th end, when it claimed six shots.
The final rink score was Turner 20 to Brache 24.
In the other division five game, Cobram’s Alan Temple was up against Numurkah’s Liz Rees.
This began as an even contest with the score 6-5 on end six in favour of the Cobram Tigers. Cobram then scored five shots on end seven.
Temple, with Denise Stanbridge (lead), Donna Bacon (second) and Tracey Emery (third), were ignited by this and didn’t drop their guard until the 13th end when Numurkah scored four shots, making the score 19-9.
This four seemed to have a positive effect on the Numurkah crew as it backed up with another three shots.
Numurkah then scored six shots on end 17 and two more on end 18, putting Numurkah in front by a single shot, 20-21.
Cobram hit back immediately with a powerful five-shot retort, which was enough to take the rink points in the end. Temple 25 to Rees 23.
However, due to the second-half effort of Rees and his team, the overall win could not be obtained by the Tigers, with the final score of Cobram 45 to Numurkah 47.
Cobram will now play Picola, which finished fourth and defeated third-placed Barooga, 48-28.
This game will be played at Cobram.
The winner will play Numurkah in the grand final at Berrigan.