The calculators are out with three weeks of round robin left in the metropolitan Senior A pennant series.
Chisholm Links (third) Island Park (fourth) and St Clair Devils (fifth) all have three games to play and look set to play a key part of the playoff race while the Otago B52s have two games remaining. They are sixth, still in the mix, especially should they beat Chisholm Links at Balmacewen today.
The Otago Bombers (first) and St Clair Saints (second) are separated by just one point and have one game each to play but look favoured to finish in the top two after rescheduling their match played last Sunday, when the Bombers defeated the Saints at St Clair.
The Bombers have the bye and will need to beat Island Park in two weeks at Waldronville to finish in pole position should the Saints beat the Devils today.
That result has permutations for the Devils. Should they lose, they face a key match against Island Park next week which may effectively prove to be a quarterfinal match with both sides scrambling for fourth.
Island Park face a strong Taieri Lakes side at Taieri today. The Lakes are out of finals contention but could well halt Park’s charge to the semis.
But a win for the visitors could create four-point gap for the Devils and B52s to run down should results play out favourably today.
The B52s-Chisholm Links match resembles more of a masters trial, with several over 40s on show.
Will McLauchlan (B52s) makes a timely return in a match that his team need to win.
By Michael Minty
