THE dubious honour of "best of the rest" could be heading Melton's way after the season-spoilers ended Gisborne's top-four hopes with a 17-shot win at the weekend.
Melton improved to fifth on the Central Highlands Bowls Association division 1 ladder with the victory, its 149 points overtaking Gisborne (148) in the process.
But with just one round remaining, Melton cannot bridge the gap to fourth-placed Kyneton Golf (168).
Home form is to blame for Melton missing the finals this season as its normally impenetrable base has allowed a number of visiting teams to walk away with the points.
"In the last six years we'd only lost two home games here, it was like a fortress," Melton skip John Adams said.
"We've been lucky enough to get a few new players prior to Christmas, but we're going to be unlucky in missing out on the finals.
"With all our washouts at home as well, if we'd played and won two of them we'd have made it."
Gisborne needed victory at the weekend to stay in finals contention.
Adams said the pressure told on its bowlers.
"They had a big pow-wow in the middle of the green prior to the game, but we had them at the start and the margin at lunch would have been close to 40."
Adams' rink led 20-3 at the lunch break and ended up winning 31-22.
Arthur Briggs, a player over 70 whom Melton talked out of retirement, was acknowledged by Adams as his rink's best at the weekend.
"Both our rinks that lost went down right at the end, one dropped three on the last end and the other three on the second-last end.
"We've lost concentration in the last few weeks but we didn't have the same kind of lapses in this game."
Melton finishes the season with a trip to finals-bound Woodend on
Saturday.
"It'd be nice a prove a point," Adams said.
CHBA ROUND 17
Division 1
Kyneton Red 90 d Woodend 80: A Murphy 22 d T Williams 18, B Petrie 26 d M Bacon 20, S Patterson 19 lt D Louttit 24, W Clark 23 d
A Maher 18.
Macedon 97 drew Lancefield 97: D Ryan 22 lt M Linehan 23, D Beardmore 23 lt P Linehan 29, N Hughes 33 d B Godbolt 16, I Guymer 19 lt J Holmes 29.
Melton 102 d Gisborne 85: C Norris 22 lt G Johnston jnr 24, D O'Loughlin 20 lt J Bell 22, J Adams 31 d G Quiafe 22, D Harvey 29 d C Jardine 17.
Kyneton Golf 105 d Trentham 85: A Firth 32 d B Mahar 16, S Taylor 24 d R Dobinson 23, R Dwyer 29 d M Hinneberg 18, M Andrews 20 lt P Rowe 28.
Bacchus Marsh 109 d Kyneton Blue 85: J Fordham 19 lt S Buckley 21, B Steenholdt 31 d N Rothe 22, D Condon 35 d L Hourigan 20, J Banks 24 d R Oliver 22.
LADDER: Kyneton Red 219, Woodend 198, Lancefield 185, Kyneton Golf 168, Melton 149, Gisborne 148, Bacchus Marsh 137, Trentham 129, Macedon 100, Kyneton Blue 97.
THIS WEEKEND: Lancefield v Kyneton Red, Woodend v Melton, Gisborne v Kyneton Golf, Trentham v Bacchus Marsh, Kyneton Blue v Macedon
Division 2
RESULTS: Mt Cottrell 110 d Kyneton Golf 99, Gisborne 168 d Bacchus Marsh 53, Romsey 98 d Diggers Rest 86, Woodend 93 lt Melton 95, Lancefield 90 d Kyneton 87.
LADDER: Romsey 207, Diggers Rest 194, Woodend 192, Kyneton 170, Melton 167, Mt Cottrell 140, Gisborne 136, Kyneton Golf 124, Lancefield 120, Bacchus Marsh 80.
Division 3
RESULTS: Kyneton 65 lt Trentham 75, Woodend Green 78 d Woodend Gold 56, Macedon 63 lt Mt Cottrell 70, Romsey 15 d Diggers Rest 0 by forfeit.
LADDER: Romsey 144 (+118 shots), Mt Cottrell 144 (+73), Trentham 136, Macedon 127, Woodend Gold 125, Woodend Green 122, Kyneton 119, Diggers Rest 35.
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