Bainbridge Wins State Singles
Played at Morley 27th January 2014 Stuart Bainbridge became the toast of Doubleview when he defeated team mate John Slavich to win his first Taylor Bowls Men’s State Singles. Doubleview has been a dominate club in the Metropolitan Premier League Pennant scene for over two decades but has had surprisingly few winners in Western Australia’s Blue Ribbon Singles event. Although “The View” has had a number of Runners Ups in the recent past including Dave Rankin last year, not since Dennis Katunarich in 1994-95 have they had the State Singles Champion in the club. After the morning semi finals it came down to not if but who as the two Doubleview players and mates went at it for 24 ends.
Like Bainbridge had done in previous matches, he started with a flurry and built up an early lead that had to be chased down. After 6 ends the score was 7-1 and Slavich was struggling to find the line and weight in the blustery conditions. A two on the7th and then another on the 9th put Slavich within four of Bainbridge at 5-9, but that was as close as he was to get for the rest of the match. Although Bainbridge didn’t dominate the contest he always had the answers to the Slavich questions. When Slavich won an end Bainbridge was able to string two scoring ends of his own together to strengthen his hold on the match and slowly pull away. Leading 18-11, Bainbridge won 3 consecutive ends to get to 24-11 and only one shot from the title. A two on the 23rd end was only a temporary halt to the Bainbridge title. With Slavich holding a close shot on the next end, a well executed yard on shot with the Bainbridge last bowl turned his own bowl onto the Slavich shot to give Bainbridge the necessary score and the 2013-14 Taylor Bowls State Singles title was his.