Holt too hot in Country Week Singles
The Sorrento Bowling Club provided both an excellent green and amazing weather for finals day of the 2023 AFGRI Equipment Men’s Countryweek Finals and Warren Holt (Wagin) took advantage of that too break through for his first Men’s Countryweek Singles title when he got the better of Maurice O’Neill (Ongerup) in the final.
In the Semi-Finals, Holt was too strong for the impressive Richard Schinzig (Moodiarrup). After an even start with the score at 4-3, Holt slowly drew away by putting together a run of three ends to lead 8-3. Schinzig was able to trade ends with Holt during the middle of the game to get the score to 7-12, before Holt turned the game on its head. Holt put together four ends with multiple shots, a two, three, two and, another two to run out a 21-7 victor.
In the other Semi-Final, Maurice O’Neill came up against Gingin’s Shaun Donohoe. Donohoe started strongly leading 6-2 before O’Neill came back with multiple ends including a three to take the lead. A strong middle section of the game saw O’Neill win nine out of twelve ends including a four and a three to have a game winning 18-9 lead. However, Donohoe was not done yet and a couple of two’s took him to thirteen. O’Neill then took his own two to go to 20 and only one away from a place in the final. Three singles to Donohoe prolonged the game before finally O’Neill got his final shot to move to a 21-16 win and a place in the final.
With the Sorrento green running very well, a light Sorrento breeze began to blow making the players think about which hand and shots were best to play. With experience behind him, Holt started the final strongly and went to an early 4-0 lead. O’Neill then got on the board with a couple of singles followed by a two to draw within one at 4-5. Holt then again won multiple ends and took the next four ends, including a three to open a solid 11-4 lead. Both players were now playing at a high standard and traded ends but Holt grabbed multiples while O’Neill only got singles so the lead grew to 16-7. On the seventeenth end, O’Neill was finally able to get more than a single by taking a three and back to a 11-16 score. A single to Holt was followed by two singles to O’Neill and the game looked well and truly on with Holt’s lead diminishing to 17-13. But once again Holt used his experience to settle down and completed hi win over the next three ends to take his first Countryweek Singles title over Maurice O’Neill 21-13.
Watch the replay of this match on Streamer at Men’s Country Week Singles Final
