Osborne Park on song
Men’s State Fours championships The Osborne Park side of Steve O’Neill, Pat Caffell, Kevin Pickering and Ian Lilburne are the 2016 Men’s State Fours champions. They defeated the composite team of Tom Mitchell, Shane Knott, Steve Withers and Mark Simpson 23-11 in the final at Bassendean Bowling Club on Sunday.
It is the second time O’Neill and Caffell have won the State Fours together and Caffell’s third overall. They made it into the final courtesy of a stunning 32-8 win over John Slavich, Charlie Slavich Nathan Jones and Danny Slavich in the morning while their opponents defeated Manning’s Matthew Mitchell, Matthew Ayres, Aj Heal and Myles Kemp 20-8.
O’Neill and Caffell were instrumental in the big day their side had playing very well in the back end. O’Neill’s team started the better side winning three of the first four ends to lead 5-2. Mitchell returned fire getting the score back to 7-6 after eight in a tight affair.
The ninth end would prove to be the major turning point in the game. With Mitchell holding three O’Neill played through the head and picked up the jack for three of his own for a six shot turn around.
After a one by Mitchell on the tenth the next four ends were all threes with three of them going to O’Neill to give him a commanding lead. Three ends later it was over as O’Neill could not be caught on the last end denying Mitchell his fourth State Fours title.
