2023 STATE BOWLING ARM SINGLES WRAP
Bowls WA hosted the 2023 Bowling Arm State Singles tournament on Sunday 30 April and Monday 1 May at Warnbro Bowling Club. Sectional play, knockout rounds, and alignment rounds featured on Sunday while Tuesday showcased Quarter Finals, Semi Finals, and the grand Final. New this year was Equal Thirds.
SECTIONAL ROUND ROBIN RESULTS: CLICK HERE
The goal on Sunday was to get from 54 entries down to 8 quarter finalists. With this requirement in mind games were timed at 1.5 hours or 21 shots up. This meant 5 games or 7.5 hours of playing for the players in the alignment rounds, seeing the day end after 7:30 at night.
In Sectional play 11 of the 18 sections had two game winners, one with a win and a draw, and the rest relying on margin to identify the section winner. All up, strong competition faced the players going into knockout rounds. Knockout rounds showed no mercy with 7 of the games won convincingly and one game going to a tight 19:17.
Monday dawned bright and cheery with our 8 quarter finalists ready to roll. Games were now timed at 2.5 hours for Quarter Finals and Semi Finals. 21 shots up still the goal. Two games of 21:14 between Steve Srhoy (Cockburn) and Michael Spadaccini (Bunbury), and Eddie Gollan (Thornlie) and Ray Bairstow (Eaton), saw Michael and Eddie gain access to the Semi Finals. Warwick Glennister (Geraldton) won 21:5 over Richard Passmore (Port Bouvard), while Gail Ecclestone won 21:7 over Ron Day (Dalkeith Nedlands).
Our Semi Final games showed very clear winners with Warwick winning 21:1 over Michael and Eddie winning 21:8 over Gail. Michael and Gail are now the Equal Thirds winners for 2023. It is important to note that Gail is our first female in the winning players of our Bowling Arm State Singles that was run at Kardinya in 2017 and 2018 and has since been running at Warnbro Bowling Club from 2019.
And now we are in the Finals game – 25 shots up and unlimited time. The heat is on – Eddie gets off the first two shots and then Warwick finds his game and takes over – for eight ends – racking up 13 shots! The consistency in which he took shot after shot was amazing – if Eddie had a bowl within 2 feet, then Warwick would plonk one or more in at 1 foot or as a toucher. On the 11th end Eddie got the mat again and made the end short – and he took 9 shots in three ends! And then Warwick got the gist of the short ends and took the next 6 ends to add 11 shots to his total (now at 24). One point needed to win the game – Eddie takes a single shot and then kills the next end, and on end 22 the game is finished, and Warwick is victorious with 25 shots up to Eddie’s 12.
ALIGNMENT ROUND, KNOCKOUTS, QUARTER FINAL, SEMI FINAL & FINAL RESULTS: CLICK HERE
The end results were:
- GOLD: Warwick Glennister (Geraldton)
- SILVER: Eddie Gollan (Thornlie)
- EQUAL THIRDS: Gail Ecclestone (Bunbury) & Michael Spadaccini (Bunbury)
Gail Ecclestone (Bunbury), Jenni Petty (HH), Michael Spadaccini (Bunbury)
Warwick Glennister (Geraldton), Jenni Petty (HH), Eddie Gollan (Thornlie)
Gail Ecclestone (Equal Third)
Eddie Gollan (Silver)
Eddie Gollan (Silver)
Thank you to Warnbro Bowling Club who are excellent hosts supplying a first-class venue. The volunteer help was exceptional from the kitchen to the greens. A special thank you to Elaine Meehan for umpiring and marking for the two days, Jenni Petty from Halls Head for marking through the day on Monday from Quarter Final through to the Final game, and all the other markers who volunteered their time!
A photo album of pictures can be found HERE.
A Facebook video of most of the Presentations can be found HERE.
Article written by Denise McMillan, Bowls WA, Inclusion & High Performance
