WHAT a weekend of bowling, with the quarter finals of the Tuross major singles, taking place on Saturday. There were four games played and you could not ask for better entertainment, it was the stuff of a Hollywood cliff-hanger. All the games were packed with excitement and “get out of jail bowls”. The anticipation was such that no one left, including the spectators and the players of the other games, until the last bowl of the last end was played, and such was the quality of the bowling exhibition displayed by all of the bowlers. The program for the day, consisted of Stan Peck playing Peter Macdonald, John Fahey against Joe Kosanic, Ray Downey up against Bruce Lidbury and Bruce Taylor playing Barry Sloane. On paper it would be hard to forecast who the winners would be and this was proven by the end results. Two of the games had respectable margins between winners and losers and the other two were down to the “bounce of the ball”.
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Stan Peck’s game had him leading up to the 26th end, then Peter Macdonald held him out over the next eight ends, allowing him (Peter) to gain 14 points to win 31 to 24. Bruce Lidbury and Ray Downey’s game was close over the first 25 ends of the match, then Bruce obtained two, three and a four to start his leap forward. This however, did not put Ray off his game and he continued to fight back, but the gap was too large to breach and he went down 31 to 20.
The other two matches were to say the least, unbelievable, it would be hard for even the professional to have topped the display given by the four bowlers. The Barry Sloane and Bruce Taylor game had Barry maintain a slight edge over Bruce for 19 ends, after which Bruce crept to the lead. This went on for another 18 ends, with each player having the lead, then losing it. On the 37 end both players were on 30, with only one point remaining to win. All the spectators’ eyes were glued to the game, with each one hoping for their favourite to win. After all the bowls were put down (and the smoke cleared), Bruce held the winning shot, thus coming home 31 to 30.
The final game had two of the clubs “top guns” up against each other John Fahey and Joe Kosanic. John took the lead early, with a slight lead over Joe for 31 ends out of the 37 ends. Joe then scored a four making the score 27 all. Then John added another three shots over the following three ends, bringing his score 30 to 27. It was then that Joe won three points on the second last end to bring the score up to 30 to 30, he did have the opportunity to win the game on that end but his bowl failed to make it to the head, much to the pleasure of John. It was then anyone’s game with each player having four bowls in which to win or lose. After all the bowls were put down the winner was Joe Kosanic winning 31 to 30. Unfortunately there has to be a winner and a loser, but given the display by all the players on the day, even if you lost, you “done good and played strong”.