Each team receives a point for the draw to remain tied at the top of the table with 10 points each.
Aware of the importance of the match with home advantage to Taieri, the side wheeled out two former Otago senior representatives in Brett Kennelly and Brian Shaw, who have not played many pennant matches this year.
In sharp contrast, Otago was without provincial No2 Brandon Hodgson, Ben Patston, who was playing premier rugby, and Jason Hughes, who is anxiously awaiting the arrival of his first child.
Otago claimed the top two games with Duncan Croudis and Tyrone Ratahi posting their fourth wins of the series in beating Ken Shaw and Mat Lee respectively.
The only other pennant player to win all four games this year is Taieri No3 Mark Andrews, who beat Aaron Charteris to achieve this goal.
Taieri was in the driving seat ahead in the other matches and levelled at 2-2 when Hayden Robertson beat Will Young to win the battle of junior players.
But Balmacewen came up with a Houdini act when No5 John McIntee won the final hole to snatch a half with Kennelly.
No6 Thomas Gillan won the last three holes to escape with a valuable half with Shaw and tie the contest.
St Clair Blue had its first win of the series when beating Chisholm 4-2 despite playing away from home.
The win is timely for the top St Clair team as it will have home advantage for the last six rounds of the competition.
St Clair’s top three of Jakob Bleach, Conor Jamison and Connor Ross all posted wins while No6 Ross Colquhoun got the team home by beating Matt Heaton on the 16th green. No5 Jason Pegler had a solid win over Tony Giles for a three-win, one-half record joining Croudis, Ratahi and Andrews as the only unbeaten players who have played all four rounds in this year’s event.
Island Park shares third place with Chisholm after winning an away game against St Clair Gold 3.5-2.5.
No1 Michael Smith, No4 Michael Minty and No6 Carl Horsnall all posted good wins for Island Park while Seb Baker and promising junior Parker Aluesi both won on the 14th green for St Clair.
No 3 Monty Wong was the difference between the two teams halving with Nathan Swift to put Island Park in front.
