Ballarat has given itself a little more breathing space inside the Ballarat District Bowls Division Saturday premier division pennant top four.
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It had the win it needed over Creswick on its home greens on Saturday.
Ballarat was playing to hold its place in the top four - being just three points ahead of fifth-placed Creswick.
This encounter threatened to be tight, but in the end Ballarat was comfortable as it picked up a valuable 14 points.
Aaron Wood's rink won by five shots and Greg Brown by 10.
Ballarat's only loss was by one, with Creswick's Travis Hedger getting over the line.
This takes Ballarat to third ahead of Sebastopol on percentage.
While Creswick is now 15 points outside the top four, it remains within touch.
A shaky Sebastopol lots its third match in four rounds - this time against Victoria by 24 shots.
The Kookaburras had been second on percentage from the Vics and a tight contest was expected.
However, all rinks were lop-sided with margins of 18, 18 and 24.
The most competitive clashes came down the ladder.
Linton kept its finals hope alive by downing Learmonth by 11 shots, to overtake the Lakies and move into sixth.
Linton is now just one point behind Creswick, as they look the only outside hopes of sneaking into the finals.
Two rinks went down to one shot.
Glenn Landers, Timothy Wilson, Brendan Vandenberg and Craig Grenfell (Linton) 22 edged out Gary Moy, Gregory Ross, Mick Casey, Ross Powell (Learmonth) 21.
Jake Mullane, Chris Powell, Fred Lennecke and David Kelly squared the ledger over Stewart Williams, Danny Pridham, Craig Williams, Brendan Williams 20-19 for Learmonth.
Cellar dwellers Mt Xavier and Buninyong also had two one-shot thrillers on the way to a five-shot win for the Mounties.
Ian McGregor, Kenneth Sergeant, Graeme Simpson and Peter Aldred won 25-24 for Buninyong and Pat Moran, Malcolm Sargent, Kevin McKeegan and Daryl Lamb 21-20 for Mt Xavier.
In the meantime, Ballarat Memorial Sports kept its unbeaten run going against Webbcona 57-51.
Ross Brown, Alistair Van der Ploeg, Chris Steenhuis and Barry McArthur gave Webbcona something to cheer about They comfortably took the points 27-14.
This was just a reminder for BMS that it needs to keep on its toes, but the other two rinks had emphatic margins for the comnpetition leader
BMS remains 24 points clear on top.