2019 Bowling Arm State Singles WRAP UP

by Denise McMillan on May 5, 2019

Bowls WA hosted the inaugural 2019 Bowling Arm State Singles tournament on Wednesday May 1^st and Thursday May 2^nd at Warnbro Bowling Club. Entries reached 36 players and after 4 withdrawals we had 32 bowlers over 6 sections play 5 rounds of sectional round-robin, 4 sections included a weighted bye, to reach the Quarter Finals of six sectional winners and two next best winners.

All games, except the Final, were formatted to 15 UP &/or 1.5 hours. The Finals game was 18 UP and untimed.

SECTIONAL ROUND ROBIN RESULTS: CLICK HERE
QUARTER FINAL, SEMI FINAL & FINAL RESULTS: CLICK HERE

Four of the section winners won outright with 15 points having won all five rounds, while two of the sections came through with twelve points and higher aggregates of three and two within their sections! The two next best winners were both on twelve points with high aggregates of 28 and 24 respectively.

This took eight players into the Quarter Finals with the following composition: 1 v 4, 2 v NB, 3 v 5, 6 v NB.

Section 1 Winner: Kieran Valente (Manning) v Section 4 Winner: Barry Bywater (Toodyay)
Section 2 Winner: Laurie Blurton (Bunbury) v Next Best Winner 1: Kim Ward (Binningup)
Section 3 Winner: Peter Morrish (Warnbro) v Section 5 Winner: Mitch Brown (Wanneroo)
Section 6 Winner: Kevin Lynch (Safety Bay) v Next Best Winner 2: Bob Eayrs (Mandurah)

Competition was fierce to get into the Semi Finals with a format of Winner (1 v 4) playing Winner of (2 v NB) and Winner of (3 v 5) playing Winner of (6 v NB) to see who was playing for which medal in the Finals.

Winner of 1 v 4: Barry Bywater
Winner of 2 v NB: Laurie Blurton
Winner of 3 v 5: Mitch Brown
Winner of 6 v NB: Bob Eayrs

The Semi Finals upon completion found the following players competing for these Medals:

Gold & Silver: Laurie Blurton & Mitch Brown
Bronze: Barry Bywater & Bob Eayrs

The quality of the Finals games was exceptional as the tenacious bowlers had toucher after toucher, killed ends when required, and wowed the audience with their games!

However, only one player can achieve each medal … the end results of this inaugural tournament were:

GOLD: Laurie Blurton (Bunbury)
SILVER: Mitch Brown (Wanneroo)
BRONZE: Bob Eayrs (Mandurah)

Laurie Blurton (Gold), Elaine Meehan (Marker), Mitch Brown (Silver) Bob Eayrs (Bronze), Barry Bywater (4^th), Jenny Wilson (Marker),

Warnbro Bowling Club was an excellent host supplying a first-class venue with two under-cover greens hosting 12 rinks and a further two greens also hosting 12 rinks. The volunteer help was exceptional from the kitchen to the greens – 14 Markers were required over 5 games of 1.5 hour duration – and a special mention to the two markers who marked for all 8 games for this event from sectional rounds straight through to the Finals … Elaine Meehan and Jenny Wilson.

The meals provided were excellent and all needs of the players were met. A special thank you to Bill Baker, Deputy President, who operated as Tournament Director and worked in coordination with Denise McMillan at Bowls WA to ensure the tournament ran smoothly.

To finish the wrap up of this fantastic tournament – Warnbro were so happy with this inaugural event that they have offered to sponsor a Warnbro Bowling Arm State Singles perpetual shield!!! The Bowling Arm participants were thrilled and hope to return to Warnbro next year to play in the same circumstances and put another name on the Shield!

A photo album of pictures can be found HERE.

A short Facebook video of one Finals End (provided by Umpire William Tan) can be found HERE.