The Men’s Open Singles were completed over the weekend, an event that this year saw many new situations and problems which brought out the best from most members .
The event had more entries this year than we have had for a number of years and both greens were needed; in the qualifying rounds, players remained on the green that they were drawn to play on.
At least two wins were necessary for a player to go into post-section and round one which was also to be played on the day.
The draw was made and two of the fourteen players received a bye – Shoota Ballinger and Dave Walker, the rest went back onto the cotula green and got into action with the following results:
Round 1: (First named, the winner)
Omeka v Neville Turnbull 21-7, Keith West v Brian Coe 21-16, Ian Wenham v Barnaby Hamid 21-16,
Ken Hayward v Murray Griffin 21-11, Trevor Tuatara v Joe Wnek 21-13, Barry Cross v Stafford Ball 21-9
Round 2 Shoota v Dave 21-11, Omeka v Keith 21-15, Ken v Ian 21-15, Barry v Trevor 21-9
Semi Final Shoota v Omeka 21-19, Barry v Ken 21-18
Final: Barry Cross v Shoota 21-11
Congratulations, Barry.
Above are the basic facts and figures covering the weekend but Ken has updated me on some of the play that I was unable to see, and it gives a better insight as to what happened in the end games. Thanks Ken.
Some extract from his mail follow:
In the semis Shoota and Omeka had a close contest playing good quality bowls. They were locked together at 14 all and then at 17 all.
However, Shoota was able to make the key shots to eventually come out on top at 21-17. Barry and I had a very close game. I made a slow start as I did against you to be behind 9-1 and then later at 16-7. However, I managed to get my act together and catch up and actually got ahead at 18-16. However on two ends after that I moved my own bowls out of shot positions to let Barry back in to lead 20-18. On what turned out to be the final end I was holding two shots with my last still to play when Barry wicked his last bowl off a short bowl to slip through to take shot. I could not get my last one close enough.
The final was perhaps a bit of an anti-climax. Both Barry and Shoota started well and were close early in the game at 8 all. But as the game wore on Barry pulled further ahead playing great draw shots and Shoota was not able to reply in kind. Barry went on to win 21-11.
A quiet end really to what had been a memorable weekend – for various reasons.