EAST COAST SINGLES 2023-24
The East Coast Bowls Championships 2023/24 came to an end on Sunday March 24 with the Grand Finals of the Men’s and Women’s singles played at the Scamander Bowls Club.
The event was held over two weekends and despite the lack of entries for both events, the quality of bowls was of a high standard. 15 men and 7 women from all four East Coast Clubs participated on Sunday March 17 in cold blustery conditions. In the Women’s event Danni Turner from St Marys had a very strong start and built up a good lead over Swansea’s Vicki Whatley. As the game progressed Vicki bridged the gap eventually taking out the game 227/21. Last years Bowler of the Year Pat Hough from Bicheno took on Julie Keane from St Marys and it was Julie who played a very consistent game to win 25/9. St Marys teammates Sue Bean and Tamatha Grose met in game 4 and it was Sue Bean who dominated the match to win 25/6. In the Semi-Finals Scamander’s Christine Reeves played Vicki Whatley and in a tight tussle it was Vicki winning her way into the Grand Final with a 25/19 victory. In the other Semi Final Sue Bean had a 28/9 victory over Julie Keane.
The Grand Final between St Marys Sue Bean and Swansea’s Vicki Whatley saw Sue begin strongly and she opened a commanding lead before Vicki was able to get into a rhythm. As the game progressed both players traded shots with some excellent up shots. In the end, it was Sue Bean who played the most consistent bowls to take out the final and become the East Coast Women’s Singles champion for the 2023/4 season.
In the Men’s event, reigning singles champion Shane Pollington was drawn against his teammate Leigh Mayne and with some very consistent draw bowling Shane won 25/12.
Swansea’s Barry Hill accounted for Karl Balzer 26/17 and Grant McCormack from Scamander was too strong for St Marys mick Sherrin winning 26/14. Scamander teammates Michael Tunks and Joe Sumrall played an entertaining game with Michael winning 25/16.
St Marys veteran Glen McDonald proved to strong for Peter Whately from Swansea winning 25/3. In the remaining two games, Scamander’s Chris Davern overcame Ray Villain from Bicheno 26/8 and John O’Hara from Bicheno defeated Swansea’s Dean Pyke 26/17.
The quarter finals saw Shane Pollington continue on his winning way with a victory over Chris Butler. Grant McCormack had a convincing win over Barry Hill and Glen McDonald defeated Michael Tunks. Chris Davern proved unstoppable in his victory over John O’Hara with a convincing 26/0 win.
The semi final between Grant McCormack and Shane Pollington was a great game with both players showing their skill at draw bowls. The scoreline of 25/10 to Grant certainly didn’t reflect what was a great game. With some very telling up shots early in the Game, Chris Davern set up what would be a commanding lead to defeat Glen McDonald 26/8.
The Grand Final between Chris and Grant was played over 36 ends with 20 of those ends being single shot wins. After 10 ends the score was 5/6 to Chris and spectators knew we were in for a long afternoon. As it was in the semi-final, it was Chris Davern’s on shots which began to prove the difference in the middle stages where he jumped away to a 21/10 lead. In a great fight back, Grant put together some strong ends to get back to 20/24 before Chris with two close bowls took out the Singles Championship with a 26/20 win.
