It was moving day at the Victorian Open yesterday as a number of draws were whittled down to their respective pointy ends.
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At the time of writing the women's triples competition had reached the semi-final stage, with either Benalla's Kerri Leask or former Seymour star Alison Hall set to book a spot in the decider at Shepparton Park tomorrow.
Leask and teammates Fay Winther and Jody Nevill were taking on Hall, Trish Cullinane and Samantha Robinson in the penultimate contest of the category late yesterday afternoon.
A pair of familiar faces also remained in the men's triples draw at the time of writing, with Katamatite product Curt Hanley and Echuca's Phil Thorn tackling the quarter-final stage of the competition.
Hanley — along with teammates Alex Skilton and Brad Foote — were battling Rob Wilson, Steve Piesley and Chris Wallace for supremacy, while Thorn, David Wells and Ian Brimblecombe were pitted against Cooper Wescombe, Matt Flapper and Jarryd Davies.
Thorn also remained alive in the men's pairs draw ahead of last night's games, joining forces once more with Mathoura's Michael Humphreys.
The pair is no stranger to the latter stages of the Bowls Victoria extravaganza that is the Open, winning a silver medal in this discipline in 2014 when it was defeated by Brad Orr and Mark Ryan in the final.
Thorn and Humphreys faced a tough task last night to progress through to the final four though, slated to compete against defending champions Wescombe and Davies.
Ryan was also in the final eight alongside Ocean Grove's Callum Hanna after a 16-9 win against Port Melbourne's Brett Dodd and Jayson Sutcliffe.
Ryan's and Hanna's opponent was yet to be determined.
Daniel and Paul Nichols just missed out of a quarter-final spot, going down 15-13 against Ben Hubber and Stephen O'Regan in the final 16.
Benalla product Tyson Cromie (final 16), Shepparton Park's Paul and Josh Warren (final 32) and Rochester's Cam Keenan (final 32) also bowed out yesterday.
The women's pairs quarter-finals last night had Moama duo Marilyn Stephenson and Melissa Roberts — as well as Hall — looking for safe passage into the semi-finals.
Hill Top's Lyn Nicholson and Dianne Downie fell by an agonising single shot in the round of 16 against Tris Doolan and Anne Draffen, while Leask also made it through to the last 16 alongside Sue Middleton.
Men's and women's singles, men's and mixed pairs and men's triples action are all scheduled to take place today, with the race for the Vic Medal — awarded to the player who accumulates the most amount of points across all disciplines from the round of 16 onward — still wide open.
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