Mundaring Pair Prove Too Good
Final played 12th February 2014 The Osborne Park Bowling Club was the host of the 2013-14 APIA Men’s Over 60’s State Pairs final in reasonable conditions and on immaculate greens.
The Mundaring pair of Rex Cox and Peter Jones won their way into the final courtesy of an eight shot victory over Osborne Park’s own Doug Eaton and Lionel Bell 23-15 in the first semi-final. Whilst the Stirling duo of Alan Erceg and Mick Marovic won a hard fought match over giant killers Tony Byrne and Peter Shaw of Hollywood-Subiaco 17-14.
The Stirling boys started the final well skipping away to an early four-nil lead thanks to a three on the second end; however it was quickly made irrelevant. Jones found his range and drew consistently while backed up by some nice conversions by Cox as the Mundaring pair went on a 14-2 scoring run over the next ten ends to take a 14-6 lead. Marovic set up some good heads and Erceg was consistently around the mark but they were unable to swing the momentum back into their favour. The Stirling crew found themselves in a difficult but very salvageable situation of being eight behind with six ends remaining. They started their fight back well as Erceg put the jack in the ditch with the last bowl of the thirteenth end for two, however a single on the next end for Mundaring followed by a two, set up by some lovely shots by Jones made it an even longer road back for Erceg and Marovic. A four for Cox and Jones on the sixteenth end would have finished the game however the chance went begging as they missed multiple opportunities to trail for four shots and the Stirling boys escaped with a single. With the score 17-9 the Stirling boys needed two just to take the last game to its last end and a great shot by Jones on his second bowl made that improbable. However Erceg was good enough to remove the bowl for shot with his first and then sneak another one in with his last to keep the game alive. With the score at 17-11 with an end to play, the Stirling pair needed a maximum count of six to take it to an extra end. At the crossover of the final end the six was still a possibility for the Stirling boys however when Erceg’s second bowl went sailing across the head a difficult kill on a longer end was required. Despite a great effort by Erceg his bowl narrowly missed the jack and cleared out the head to give Rex Cox and Peter Jones two shots, a 19-11 win and the 2013-14 APIA Over 60’s Men’s State Pairs title.
Final Day Results
