The 2023 Mixed State Pairs Champions
A record field of 132 teams took part in the Liquor Traders Australia 2023 State Mixed Pairs and, incredibly, it came down to the last bowl of the tournament to find our champions. A strength of the sets play game is the element of a one end tiebreak if both teams win a set each as well as the last end of each set usually providing an opportunity of both teams being able to win the set. This creates many more opportunities for drama than a more traditional total ends match can provide.
The first Semi Final saw North Beach’s Brad Gillingham and Rinske Butcher taking on the Sorrento pair of Jan Konig and Coral Smith. Konig and Smith started strongly by getting a four on the first end, proving the difference in the first set. For the remaining five ends of the set, it was a back-and-forth affair with Konig winning 7-3. The second set started with Konig again taking the first end but this time it was just a single. Gillingham was able to put together three ends in a row, including a couple of multiples, to lead 5-1 after four ends. From then on, Gillingham was able to keep it tight and drop only a couple of singles to take the second set 5-3 and force a one end tiebreak. Both teams had already been involved in two tiebreaks that day so neither team was a stranger to the pressure. When the final bowl was played it was Gillingham and Butcher that would advance to the final 3-7, 5-3, 1-0.
The second semi-final had Doubleview’s Stewart Gosstray and Belinda Lehman up against the country duo of Robert Marinoni (Moodiarrup) and Karen Ward (Dumbleyung). The Gosstray team had an outstanding first set to win 11-0, including a full count of six, to look in command of the game. When Gosstray took the first end of the second set by getting a single, it looked all but over but Marinoni and Ward broke through for a single on the second end of the second set and then followed it up with a two on the third end to lead 3-1. A single to Gosstray was followed up with a return single to Marinoni who then finished it off with a two on the last end of the set to win 6-2 and force a tiebreak. Bowl for bowl they went and although Marinoni may have lost the aggregate score, he and Ward took a single on the tiebreak to force their way into the final.
Gillingham and Butcher started the final strongly with a three and then a couple of singles. For Marinoni and Ward, it was a replica of their semi-final where they struggled to get on the scoreboard in the first set. With Gillingham leading 5-0, finally a single to Marinoni got the ball rolling and then another single on the second last end gave them an outside chance of recovering the first set. It was not to be however, and Gillingham and Butcher played smart to close the first set out 6-2. A Marinoni two on the first end of the second set was followed by a two to Gillingham. Marinoni went to the lead again, this time with a single, only to see Gillingham grab another two to put him and Butcher back in front 4-3. When Marinoni took a two on the second last end, Gillingham only needed a single to draw the set and win the championship. That single looked likely as his last bowl headed towards the jack, but it just swung across the head late to go past the Marinoni bowl, and we were off to a tiebreak.
Both leaders put down their three bowls and on the cross over Ward just held shot. Gillingham rescued the situation with his second to gain shot only to see Marinoni draw shot again. Rather than draw the shot, Gillingham decided to attack the head and, in particular, the shot bowl. He was right on target, removing the shot, but in doing so, his bowl came across and got the jack, sending it out of bounds. When the jack was respotted on the tee, Marinoni still held shot with a bowl four feet short. With Marinoni’s last bowl he turned his own bowl up even closer, leaving Gillingham two feet to take the title. This was the fourth time in the tournament Gillingham had been in this situation, and for the previous three times he had been successful – was it to be a fourth time? Right from the hand the weight looked good and Gillingham started chasing it once it was apparent that it was also on the right grass line. With urging from Butcher, the bowl found it’s way inside the Marinoni bowl and in an outstanding final, Brad Gillingham and Rinske Butcher were the 2023 State Mixed Pairs Champions.
