But on the weekend, enter stage left, the Wongan Blue format of Don Jones, Brad Zwarecz, Paul Pascoe and Peter Ebert who showed Whyte and company how it feels to drop 23 shots although there was little compensation from the knowledge the Whyte combo was up two shots over the two weekends.

Adding to Blue’s triumphal 5-1 visit to Dally was Don Dellar’s one shot over Kingsley Toster but saving a white wash, Phil Moore and crew managed six over Peter Breen.

Terrible time for two

Given a turn of phrase, bowls wise, you wouldn’t want to meet Dally White’s Glen Jones and Willy Lines on a dark night.

But both of these power bases are having a terrible time with Jones notching just a draw and a win and Willy a solitary victory to date.

And their misfortune continued in White’s visit to Kalannie with Jones going down to Kim Jefferis by six and Lines close, but not good enough, by two to Kingsley Roach.

A return to form would have considerably enhanced White’s Gordon McNeill’s 22 over Vic Orchard but coming away with the aggregate and a 4-2 tally perhaps indicates White may be on the come back trail.

However, the result offers the opposite to Kalannie with their fortunes apparently, for the present, on a yo-yo.

Luck of the draw

It was fitting to have the league’s two unbeaten skippers - Buntine’s Trevor Reudavey and Calingiri’s Ian Woods, hitherto each with three wins and a draw out of their then four games - pitted against each other in Buntine’s visit.

A draw would have been the ideal gentlemanly result and although it went close with two shots Reudavey’s way, his method of achieving the result is open to question.

Overlooking overtures to keep the information under wraps, the news is too good not to reveal Reudavey and crew dropped an eight during the foray.

They will now have to run this gauntlet for some considerable time to come.

The rest of the news was not good for Calingiri with Ray Anderson’s positive 12 over Richard Smith and Ian Carlshausen’s four over Paul Spowart for a 0-6 bleak day.

Monstrous hang-up

A hot day, the Moora officiates claimed their carpet, during the Wongan Red visit, was running at 14 to 15 seconds and might have got up to 17.

This speed should have, and did to a point, favour the visitors.

But there was one monstrous hang-up.

Moora’s Bruce Manning was drawing to perfection and with Mick Rodan, normally in a skipper’s role, as third, matching Manning’s draw ability and containing Bruce’s desire to run at everything, together with Tich Murray’s new bowls finding a magnet in the kitty and Mike Prunster, as lead, in like form, any sort of opposition had little hope.

The bunny in this case was Bernie Driscoll in a new role as skipper and a few others to provide a sumptuous meal.

However, across the boards there was another agenda as where Bruce Manning was gathering the shots, Moora’s other rinks headed by Bill Hobden and a returning Phil Manning were losing them.

At one point there was just two shots in the aggregate despite a 20-shot deficit on Driscoll’s rink.

Gathering resources, Moora clawed back on their two losing rinks toward the end of the day to see Bill Hobden drop five to Norm Wass and Don Macpherson holding the powerful Phil Manning to a draw.

With Bruce Manning feasting on Driscoll by 29, Moora obviously had the aggregate well in hand for a 4.5-1.5 win but Wongan Red can take heart from the knowledge, not one team in the league has got closer to Moora at home than just a rink win in the season thus far.

Results

Moora 4.5 (81) d Wongan Red 1.5 (57): Phil Manning 23 drew with Don Macpherson, Bruce Manning 41 d Bernie Driscoll 12, Bill Hobden 17 lost to Norm Wass 22.

Buntine 6 (75) d Calingiri 0 (57): Ray Anderson 25 d Richard Smith 13, Ian Carlshausen 22 Paul Spowart 18, Trevor Reudavey 28 d Ian Woods 26.

Wongan Blue 5 (80) d Dalwallinu Green 1 (62): Don Dellar 26 d Kingsley Toster 25, Don Jones 35 d Noel Whyte 12, Peter Breen 19 lost to Phil Moore 25.

Dalwallinu White 4 (79) d Kalannie 2 (65): Gordon McNeill 34 d Vic Orchard 12, Glen Jones 24 lost to Kim Jefferis 30, Willy Lines 21 lost to Kingsley Roach 23.

Leading skippers

For the present it is somewhat settled as Buntine’s Trevor Reudavey claims the lead as the league’s only unbeaten skipper with four wins and a draw out of his five games with the added accolade of having done this with while dropping an eight.

With only one loss from five games Moora’s Bruce Manning (+55) and Kalannie’s Kingsley Roach (+26) join the next in line.