Geraldton’s Criddle and Eaton win Pairs

by Aaron Delaporte on March 9, 2018

Final Played 9th March 2018 Geraldton’s Joe Criddle has become a two time Country Week Pairs champion by winning the 2018 competition with Jeff Eaton.
Criddle won his first title in 2012.
Their win is of added significance with Eaton becoming the first player to win a major title in Western Australia using a bowling arm.
They defeated the Busselton pair of Matt Pennington and Jim Paganoni in Pennington’s first of two finals for the day.
The Geraldton pair won the first two ends before giving up a good three by Pennington to be level early.
Pennington and Paganoni scored the next three shots as well but after that it was Criddle and Eaton who well and truly controlled the game.
A 13-3 scoring run saw Geraldton go into the final end seven shots clear of their opponents who needed a miracle.
It looked especially worrying after 11 bowls had been played when they found themselves three down with one on the bank however Paganoni got the jack to a good spot trying to kill the end.
The downside was that with the jack in the ditch they couldn’t kill the end and all bowls must count.
They looked a very faint chance heading into the last bowl however, possibly holding five but needing to get a bowl now more than two metres short to count as well as the last.
In the end though it was a practical impossibility and as it turned out the Busso boys only held four anyway.
This gave Criddle and Eaton the title in a 16-13 victory, continuing Geraldton’s strong country week record and playing a big part in them being given the PS Bignell Memorial Shield as the most outstanding club at the tournament.