Swansea won the grand final against Kurri Kurri with their final bowl last year.

This time it was David Govan, bowling for Valentine, who turned the tables on Swansea.

Govan teamed with Ian MacRae in the pairs against Clint Doust and Scott Baus.

The two sets had been squared 9-9, 7-7 and Valentine were leading the Skiffs 2-0, but two down on the head, when Govan stepped onto the mat for the final time.

Both of Swansea’s shot bowls were right on the kitty, but Govan was able to remove one with his final delivery for the Lakers to advance to the major semi-final.

It marked a huge turnaround for Valentine, who finished 12th in the 13-team competition last year.

The Lakers will rest Chris Taylor and bring in Col Fraser as lead in the triples when they head to minor premiers Kurri Kurri on Friday night.

‘‘We have decided to give Col a run in the play-offs as a reward for his efforts in filling in during the season,’’ Valentine bowls manager Michael Munn said.

The Canons finished half a point in front of Valentine in the race for the minor premiership. They beat the Lakers 11-4 when they met at Kurri Kurri in round eight.

Coach and co-ordinator Nathan Dawson will again play singles, Andrew Rees will team with marquee Terry Antram in the pairs, and John Wilson, Tony Harris and Aaron Appleby will form the triples combination for Kurri Kurri.

‘‘The boys have had a couple of weeks to freshen up, and while there are a lot of good young blokes in the Valentine side, we are entitled to go in confident, especially at home where we are unbeaten this season,’’ Dawson said.

Brody Pitham is hoping to bounce back to form when East Cessnock head to Swansea for the minor semi-final on Friday night.

Fifth-placed East Cessnock lived to fight another day when they eliminated the fourth-placed Maitland City 9-6 on Friday night, but Pitham was beaten 17-6, 17-7 by NSW under-18 representative Hadyn Bojkowski in the singles.

‘‘Haydn played pretty good, but I played pretty ordinary, so hopefully I can get on the green a bit more this week and get back in the groove,’’ Pitham said.

Both sides will field unchanged line-ups, with Pitham lining up against fellow NSW representative Matthew Baus in the singles.

Swansea manager Paul Wesche said the Skiffs have been finding it difficult to get all three rinks up on the same night, and while East Cessnock would be hard to beat, he was optimistic playing at Swansea would help.