In a nightmare finish, the home side surrendered an 18-shot lead after 75 ends to blow any chance it had of sneaking into the top four.

“I don’t know if we just tried to protect the lead or what happened,” skip Maurie Braden said.

“It was disappointing because Yarrawonga did the right thing by us and rolled YMGCR.

“We could have been playing for a spot in the top four next week.”

Braden’s rink led Thomas Webb 22-3 but conceded the next 19 shots to finish square at 22-all.

Corowa Civic’s Max Scanlan accounted for Trevor Selwood 27-17 and Dawn Hayman brought down Ian Brimblecombe 28-11.

Wangaratta’s Greg McDonald defeated Col Hendren 28-14.

“We probably don’t deserve to be playing finals because our consistency hasn’t been great,” Braden said.

“We’ve been a bit up and down.”

Wangaratta take on fourth-placed YMGCR in the final round.

Wodonga’s Paul Davies saved the Bulldogs against Rutherglen at Wodonga.

Davies’ 35-14 win over Ross Rankin gave the home team enough breathing space to cover the losses of Peter McLarty (23-24) and Josh Rudd (18-23).

Kylie Whitehead edged out William Campbell 25-19 in the remaining rink.

Yarrawonga caused a boilover by edging out YMGCR 92-90.

Despite being out of finals contention, Yarrawonga refused to cave in with the four rinks decided by four or less shots.

Kevin Evans defeated James Lefevre 26-22 and Tim Cromie edged out Ray Irvine 22-20.

Neil Hocking and Garry Sanders  played a 25-all draw and YMGCR tasted their only victory when Rod Jones outgunned Melissa Roberts 23-19.

Ladder leader Benalla blitzed Kiewa Valley 113-62 at Benalla.

While Chris Cooney and Matt Robertson were made to work hard for their wins, Rob Mitchell comfortably defeated Jude Bartel 37-11 and Shawn McMahon overpowered Trevor Sandford 31-12. 

The ladder is: Benalla 179, Corowa Civic 156, Wodonga 152, YMGCR 134, Wangaratta 114, Kiewa Valley 81, Yarrawonga 78, Rutherglen 42.