It was a case of oh-so-close for the Margaret River Cabernet Savages on Saturday night as they were pipped at the post by a plucky Gold City Rollers side 156 to 168.
From the starting whistle it looked like the Cab Savs would dominate the match as they strode out to an early lead.
Ranga Banga pushed out the lead early on after a series of quick jukes picked holes in the Gold City pack and helped create a twenty point buffer.
Helping out their jammers was a very tight defensive unit in the form of Joan of Darc, Dani Hell Raiser and K Mummy. All worked overtime to shut down the skilful Gold City jammers.
Team stalwart Nasty Pasty plugged in any holes that may have appeared the Gold City jammer was shut out of the game for most of the half.
It looked as though the Cab Savs would cruise away with the half, were it not for giving away penalties at the key moments.
With K Mummy was sent off in the dying moments of the half giving Gold City a power jam.
Gold City’s jammer Beatle leapt on the opportunity and brushed her way through the Cab Sav pack several times to blitz the score board and steal the half for the visitors 106-101.
Rattled by the sudden lead change the momentum shifted towards Gold City. The Cab Savs started to lose their game plan and it was not long before holes were appearing in their defensive pack.
The Cab Savs got caught playing Gold City’s game who were slowing the game down to relieve the pressure on their low number of subs.
This was helped further by an excessive amount of official time-outs which gave all the players a breather and disrupted the flow of the game.
Cab Savs needed to step on the gas to run out Gold City but was unable to do so until late in the half.
Ranga Banga proved pivotal in their success and used her speed to pick up quick scoring opportunities to close the ever growing gap between the sides.
Fanta Pants and Ningaloo Grief also added speed but a penalty to Ningaloo gave Gold City some breathing room.
With the score 140-150 with just seven minutes to go it was coming down to the wire.
The crowd, sensing a shift in the air started to pick up the enthusiasm which sent the Cab Savs into overdrive.
Discipline was restored for the Cab Savs with the squad content to pick up three points per jam, instead of pushing for the full four to close the gap.
Gold City was left scoreless for nearly five minutes and a blitzing run from Ranga Banga saw the lead shift 156-150.
It was the comeback everyone wanted to see but sport can be a cruel mistress. K Mummy was binned in the last play of the match to give Gold City a power jam which they used to rack up a massive haul of points to steal the game.
Penalties were what lost the game for the girls. With 26 fouls against them, mostly occurring at critical moments, the wind was taken out of their sails at key times.
Despite the loss the girls enjoyed the match.
“Gold City is a great team to play and very friendly,” Dani Hell Raiser said.
“It was a very close game the whole way through.”