The Steamers have been involved in an incredible 12 tie-break matches — including four successive tie-breakers in Thursday’s day session — winning all but two of those, and lead the competition after 15 rounds by nine points.
Moama was drawn to play third-ranked Sydney Lions in the Fox Sports match at 9pm last night and the final two rounds of the competition are this morning.
Each of the 10 franchises plays each other twice, which count as the 18 qualifying rounds. The top five teams at the end of the preliminary rounds contest the finals.
With a 13-2 win-loss record the home team is three wins clear of Adelaide, with Sydney Lions third and pre-tournament favourite Tweed Heads Ospreys in fourth.
The four tie-break wins on Thursday came against Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and Tasmania. In their final two rounds, on Friday, the Steamers face Tweed Heads and Perth.
Tweed Heads is the team which has won three of the last four editions of the BPL and is the biggest threat to a home rink win for the Steamers.
Come finals time the first and second-ranked teams play off. The Steamers are certain to finish in one of those positions, and will play in a qualifying final.
The winner of the qualifying final will progress straight through to the grand final, with fourth and fifth-placed teams involved in a knockout match.
The winner of that match will play the third-ranked team for the right to play the loser of first-versus-second in a preliminary final.
Ryan Bester, who is on track to win another most valuable player award after an exceptional BPL14, said he expected the Steamers to be up there, but maybe not 13-2.
“This is a first. In this competition to be 13 and two doesn’t happen too often,” he said.
Bester has played with the Moama franchise in 13 editions of the BPL, the Queensland-based Canadian champion explaining the franchise had an incredible history in the tournament.
"We made the grand final two of the last three events. We have a pretty good record.
"We’ve made most finals series as a franchise. This will be our ninth time out of 13 making the finals.“
Bester is approaching his 200th appearance for the Steamers, having been involved in two winning teams from his five grand finals.
“Tweed Heads is probably the one we need to watch out for.
"We play them... in the second last round,“ he said.
Tweed Heads beat the Steamers in one of their many tie-breakers. The Steamers won the opening set 6-2, before the Ospreys were 7-3 and 1-0 winners of the second set and tie-breaker.
The Steamers will contest the Ultimate Bowls Challenge in May at Dandenong.
Bester, Kevin Anderson and Alex Marshall, who is playing in this event with Brisbane Pirates, will represent the Steamers at the $500,000 tournament.
There will be 21 franchises involved in the event, with the Moama team due to register its involvement in the competition next month.
The prize money is significantly more for the UBC than it is for the BPL, which has a $100,000 purse.
There are a few different rules for players involved in the UBC, which is now affiliated with Bowls Australia.
The next BPL will be staged at Pine Rivers in Queensland on May 23-27.
See Monday’s Riv Herald for full details from the finals of the BPL14 event, which are on tonight at Moama Bowling Club.
38°C