Over 60’s Men’s State Triple Winners!
The Final of the GenesisCare Men’s Over 60’s State Triples was a tight nail-biting affair after coming down to an umpire’s decision on the last end at the Willetton Bowling Club.
The first semi-final saw John Goddard, Gary Caffell and Grant Nicol (Composite) start slowly but then powered on from the midway point to overcome Denis Bandy, Jim Ricci and Ken Wylie (Cockburn). Bandy jumped out to a four nil lead early but by the 9th end the scores stood at six all. It was then all Goddard, as his team won seven of the next nine ends to book their place in the final 15-8
The second semi-final saw Daryl Radford, Ken Stower, John Terrell (Composite) take on Thornlie’s Robert Carruthers, Pasquale Riggio, Anthony Williams. The game was tight early before Radford broke away winning a string of ends including two threes. At 17-8, with only two ends to play, the game looked over. However, Carruthers team had not given up hope and a three on the second last end to make the score 17-11 gave them hope. With only six bowls per team, Thornlie needed all bowls to count to force it to an extra end. They were to pull up agonisingly short and when the final end had finished, they only had five shots to see Radford go through to the final 17-16.
The grand final began with Radford, Stower and Terrell picking up singles on the first two ends only to see Goddard, Caffell and Nicol get singles on the next two ends for the score to sit at 2-2. Those first four ends set up the pattern for the day, with Radford winning two consecutive ends and then for Goddard to return fire with his own two ends.
A single and a two to Radford, saw Goddard respond with two singles. Two singles to Radford and again Goddard responded with two singles of his own. At the end of the 12th end, eleven singles had been scored and Radford held a 7-6 lead curtesy of a solitary two on the 6th end. It was at that point the game went crazy with multiple shots coming at a rapid rate and the two end in a row pattern came to a halt briefly. Radford grabbed a two to go up 9-6 and Goddard responded with a match high three to draw level 9-9. This was the first time the two teams had not won or lost two ends in a row for the game.
However, the pattern soon resumed with Radford grabbing a two and then a single in consecutive ends to lead by three with only two ends to play. On the second last end, Goddard used a big drive with his last bowl to get out of trouble and with both bowls and the jack spinning like tops, when the dust settled Goddard had made two shots to go into the last end needing one shot to force an extra end or two shots to win the game. Close bowls by the leads and seconds, saw the Goddard team hold one and a measure when it came to the skips turn. With neither skip able to make an impact on the head, the seconds countered up the shots. The Goddard shot bowl got taken out and then the umpire was called to determine the second shot. In the safe hands of BWA Umpire David Killisch Von Horn, it was determined that John Goddard also had the second shot.
After a marvellous final, John Goddard, Gary Caffell and Grant Nicol were declared the 2022-23 GenesisCare Men’s Over 60’s State Triples Champions
Full Results Men’s Over 60’s here
