IT had to happen at some point and for the first time all season, Victoria has gone down, losing by just one shot in a thriller against Sebastopol.
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despite Victoria winning three of the four rinks, Sebastopol's Will Matthews spearheaded a strong 26-17 win over Noel Verlinden's team and with the other rinks all tight, it was enough for a thrilling 80-79 result.
The win will give Sebastopol enormous confidence despite an up and down season. It lifts it to 123, just nine points adrift of Mount Xavier and BMS with the supposed hardest match of the year now behind it.
For Victoria, it was probably the loss it needed to have. So dominant has it been, it would have been a disaster for the club had its first loss happened to have come in the finals. This gives it a chance to regroup with a run to the finals over the coming five weeks.
Capping off a bad day for the top two clubs, Ballarat also went down against a fired-up Webbcona who held on for a four-shot win.
After last week's shock defeat, Webbcona needed to bounce back hard and with win to both Zakk Stewart and Gary Johnson, it was enough to see them squeeze past Ballarat 77-73.
Creswick pushed itself away from the bottom rungs of the ladder with a hard-fought victory over Buninyong.
Travis Hedger's squad led the way for Creswick with a 32-12 win over Wayne Morgan, while Michael Booth also put together a solid 21 ends with a 27-19 win over Peter Aldred.
Mount Xavier has got itself back on the winners list and just in a knick of time, proving too strong for Learmonth.
After a run of poor results against top side, Mount Xavier needed to get the points to remain inside the top four on the ladder.
Strong wins to teams skippered by Phillip McGrath and Ray Bellingham proved the key to the victory, with Mount Xavier winning by 15 shots overall, 81-66.
In Friday night's encounter, BMS overcame a scare to score 14 valuable points against Linton and maintain its position inside the top four.
It was the team skippered by Ryan Bedggood that eventually proved the difference for the home side, with his squad defeating the team skippered by Craig Williams 30-10, giving BMS enough points to score a 12-shot win, 90-78.
BMS 90 (14) def Linton 78 (4)
Jeff Ryan, Craig Hurdsfield, Michael Jose, Philip Clamp 19 def by Malcolm Worthy, Eugene Grigg, Stan Meale, Craig Grenfell 23; David Andrews, Daniel Vagg, Robert Dickinson, Ryan Bedggood 30 def Glenn Landers, Danny Pridham, Brendan Vandenberg, Craig Williams 10; Adam McLean, Keith Urch, David Schreenan, Michael Storey 17 def by Stewart Williams, Ray WIlson, Martin Drinkwater, Brendan Williams 28; Stephen Byron, Travis Preston, Lindsay Trounce, David Berry 24 def Sydney Walters, Roy Broughton, Nick Pearce, Rodney Hetherington 17
Ballarat 73 (4) def by Webbcona 77 (14)
Philip Aspland, Robert Sidebottom, Corey Fothergill, Wes Lennecke 20 def Ross Brown, Alistair Van def Ploeg, Greg Blackburn, Matthew Collins 17; John Cameron, Greg Stewart, Tony Wood, Taylor Stewart 22 def by Chris Steenhuis, Harold Worsley, Leah McArthur, Zakk Stewart 22; Rhiannon Williams, Mark Fothergill, Grant Bourke, Nathanial Campbell 16 def Brett Collins, Wayne Pattie, Todd Blackburn, Ben McArthur 13; Dale McGregor, Paul Ryan, Colin Johnson, Gregory Brown 17 def by Sarah Braybrook, Colin Young, Nathan Mahoney, Gary Johnson 25
Victoria 79 (6) def by Sebastopol 80 (12)
Paul Tudorovic, Shaun O'Loughlin, Barry Clark, Brenton Coad 18 def Noel Sutherland, Craig Meade, Tim Beecham, Ian Warner 17; Kevin Coad, Marc Oswin, Wayne Lynch, Shaun Clark 20 def Gary Sheppard, Neil Morris, Alan Jones, Murray Gannon 14; Michael Curtis, Debbie Gorin, Sunni Haynes, Noel Verlinden 17 def by Kevin Lynch, Darren Meade, Rod Baker, Will Matthews 26; Donna Leeson, Stephen Britt, Craig Ford, Haig Varcoe 24 def Fred Reus, Ian Hedger, John Garvin, Paul Lovell 23
Learmonth 66 (4) def by Mount Xavier 81 (14)
Timothy Griffin, Kenneth Johnson, Gregory Ross, Ross Powell 25 def Darryl Boyd, Neil Dart, Frank Duggan, Paul Forrest 13; Addy Ryan, Ron Verlin, David Ryan, David Kelly 12 def by Robert Storey, Joshua Sargent, Kevin McKeegan, Phillip McGrath 24; William Rowe, Chris Powell, Brendan Pym, Craig Findlay 12 def by Pat Moran, Jack McDonald, Daryl Lamb, Ray Bellingham 29; Adam McCormack, Gary Moy, Mark Powell, Mick Casey 17 def Stacey Forrest, Lynden Henderson, John Duggan, Chris McDonald 15
Creswick 91 (14) def Buninyong 79 (4)
Robert Ohlsen, Peter Fontana, Gerry Flapper, Michael Booth 27 def Terrance Jordan, Stephen Dargaville, Norman Hand, Peter Aldred 19; Trevor Booth, Dale Chalmers, Harley Taylor-Irwin, Alan Annear 16 def by Ethan Simpson, Yvonne Clark, Ian Voigt, Keith Chapman 20; Richard Irwin, John Matusik, Dusty Taylor-Irwin, Travis Hedger 32 def Kevin Lee, John Nunn, Brian Wilcock, Wayne Morgan 12; Dean Cooper, Rebecca Cooper, Geoff Antonio. Stephen Hepworth 16 def by Brian Johnson, Stephen Falconer, Graeme Nicholson, Graeme Simpson 28
Ladder
VICTORIA 191, +328, BALLARAT 142, +151, BMS 132, +44, MOUNT XAVIER 132, -57, Webbcona 128, -29, Sebastopol 123, -13, Linton 89, -148, Creswick 82, -104, Learmonth 79, -49, Buninyong 71, -123
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