Wee Waa Bowling Club’s Over-60s Singles finalists decided following a blockbuster Saturday

Steve Berger and Chris Crutcher will contest Wee Waa Bowling Club’s 2021 Over-60s Singles decider after winning quarter-final and semi-final matches on Saturday.

The club hosted all four quarter-finals that morning followed by the semi-finals in the afternoon.

Berger defeated Clancy Hamilton 32-19 in the round of eight while Crutcher outscored Ross Smith 31-16. The other quarter-final winners were Phil Lawford, who beat Trevor Keys 33-28, and Graham Amos, who downed Charlie Thompson 31-25.

In the semi-finals later that day, Crutcher beat Amos 32-12 and Berger defeated Lawford 31-29.

In Berger’s 13-shot quarter-final victory against Hamilton on Saturday morning, the eventual finalist went down on the first end but won eight of the next nine to establish a 15-3 lead after 10 ends.

Hamilton trailed 24-10 after 19 ends, but rallied to score six unanswered shots across the next three ends to reduce the deficit to eight.

However, Berger won five of the next seven ends a combined eight shots to three to claim a 32-19 victory after 29 ends of play.

In Crutcher’s quarter-final match against Smith, the eventual finalist won six ends to four by a combined 12 shots to six to establish a six-shot lead after 10 ends. He won the next six consecutive ends to go ahead 21-6.

Smith replied by winning seven of the following nine ends a combined 10 shots to three to reduce the deficit to eight.

But Crutcher would have the final say as he scored the seven shots he required for victory across the following four ends to run away with a 31-16 win in 29 ends.

Lawford and Keys’ quarter-final match was the pick of the four as the two bowlers produced a 36-end
thriller.

Lawford won the first end to go ahead 2-0 before leading for all of the following 32 ends until Keys scored a three on the 34th to tie the match at 28-all after he had trailed by as many as nine shots several times throughout the match.

He was denied a remarkable come-from-behind victory, with Lawford scoring a one then a four to win the contest 33-28.

In the other quarter-final, Amos came out firing to establish a 19-4 lead after 15 ends of play.

Thompson only managed to win four ends up until that stage of the match, but he fought back to claim seven of the next 11 as Amos led 23-18 after 26 ends.

That lead became 29-22 before Thompson fired back with a four on the 34th end to move within three shots of the lead.

However, Amos scored the two shots he required for victory on the 35th end to wrap up the match at 31-26.

Crutcher’s semi-final win against Amos was a simple one, which had finished after 21 ends of play.

Amos led 7-2 early after winning three of the first four ends, however, Crutcher had levelled the score at 7-all by the completion of the sixth before going ahead 10-7 after seven.

The score was 11-all after 11 ends before Crutcher showed his class to race away with the win. The eventual finalist won nine of the next 10 ends a combined 21-1 to score a dominant 32-12 victory.

The other semi-final was a nail-biting contest from start to finish as the Wee Waa Bowling Club’s 2021 Over-60s Pairs champions Berger and Lawford went head-to-head against one another and produced a classic.

The score was 2-all after two ends, 4-all after four ends and 9-all after 11 ends before Lawford won three of the next four ends to lead 14-10 after 15.

Berger responded by scoring eight consecutive points as he won all of the next four ends to go ahead 18-14.

That became 18-16 after Lawford claimed a shot on the next two ends, but Berger went on another eight-shot run, this time across three ends, to lead 26-16 after 24 ends.

The match looked done and dusted when Berger led 29-17 after 27 ends, however, Lawford then produced a magnificent spell of bowls to get himself back in the game, winning six of the next seven ends a combined 12 shots to one.

During that stretch, he scored seven shots across the 28th, 29th and 30th ends to make the score 29-24, before Berger scored one shot on the 31st end to get within one shot of victory.

Lawford then scored five shots across the next three ends to reduce his deficit to just one shot.

At 30-29 going into the 35th end it was either bowler’s game to win, and it was Berger who got the job done by scoring one shot to take the game 31-29.

Wee Waa Bowling Club then hosted two Consistency Singles matches on Sunday, one of which saw Lawford bounce back to score his second win from three matches on the weekend.

He downed Peter Hennessy 153-109 after 28 ends of play after leading from the third end to the last.

In the other game, Ross Smith defeated Graham Amos 150-96 after 27 ends of play.

Wee Waa Bowling Club will host six more Consistency Singles matches this Saturday. Matches scheduled to be played from 9.30am are as follows: Clancy Hamilton v Jay Hall (marker – Charlie Thompson), Dustyn Allen v Sean Anderson (marker – Peter Doring), Bruce Cowan v Gary Nolan (marker – Steve Berger), Trevor Keys v Chris Crutcher (marker – Kyne Allen), Hunter Doring v Justin Knight (marker – Phil Lawford), Ross Smith v Toby Reynolds (marker – Peter Hennessy).