Wee Waa Bowling Club played host to 2021 Zone 3 Bowls State Fours and State President’s Reserve Fours sectional play on Saturday.
In the first competition matches of the year, the two victorious teams were winners on their home greens.
Justin Knight, Ty and Kevin Baker and Todd Cowan advanced in the State Fours competition with a 24-15 final win, and Charles Thompson, Gary Nolan, Graham Amos and Dustyn Allen progressed in the State President’s Reserve Fours after winning the final 17-12.
Those two Wee Waa teams will now play at the zone finals which will be held at Armidale City Bowling Club on Saturday and Sunday, February 13 and 14.
Two teams nominated for the State President’s Reserve Fours competition sectional play at Wee Waa, which meant that only a final was contested in that division on Saturday morning.
Thompson, Nolan, Amos and Allen took on another Wee Waa team which included Hunter Doring, Sean Anderson, Brett Pillar and Tony Reynolds.
Allen’s team won seven of the first 10 ends to lead 12-3. Reynolds’ team then won six of the next eight ends to reduce the deficit to three points, with the score at 14-11 with three ends to go.
Allen’s team won the next two ends while scoring three points to go ahead 17-11 before Reynolds’ team scored one shot on the 21st and final end to make the score 17-12.
The key moment of that match was the fourth end when Allen’s team scored five shots. That was eventually the difference in the match. On each of the other 20 ends, teams only scored either one or two shots, which highlighted how crucial that outlier was for the winning side.
In the State Fours competition, three teams entered to play which saw one progress straight through to the Saturday afternoon final.
The other two met in a Saturday morning preliminary final.
It was Knight’s team which was drawn to go through to the decider, which meant that on Saturday morning, fellow Wee Waa team Jay Hall, Ray Dixon, Peter Doring and Steve Berger took on a travelling Narrabri side which included David Dewar, Norm Walford, Paul Crutcher and Trinity Kelly.
The Narrabri men claimed a one-shot victory to progress to the final. They won 10 ends to the Wee Waa team’s 11, but outscored their opponents 22-21 in a thriller.
The Narrabri team won seven of the first eight ends to take a 12-2 lead.
However, the Wee Waa men fought back and claimed the next six ends to establish a 16-12 lead.
The match then became a see-sawing affair. The Narrabri team won the next two ends to edge back in front 17-16, the Wee Waa team then scored a two on the 17th end to go ahead 18-17, before the Narrabri team scored a four on the 18th end to retake the lead and make the score 21-18.
The home side won two of the last three ends, however, it was not enough to get it over the line as the visitors held on to win 22-21.
In Saturday afternoon’s final, Wee Waa’s Knight, Baker, Cowan and Baker met Narrabri’s Kelly, Dewar, Walford and Crutcher in a match which was played in the rain on the Wee Waa Bowling Club’s synthetic green.
Despite trailing for the first 14 ends, the Wee Waa team produced a remarkable comeback to win 24-15.
The Narrabri men started on the front foot, winning four of the first five ends to establish a 10-1 lead.
However, the Wee Waa team responded with a six on the sixth end to reduce the deficit to just three points.
The visitors won the next two ends to make the score 12-7, and with 10 ends to go the Narrabri men led 13-10.
From then on, the match was dominated by the hosts who won eight ends.
A four on the 15th saw them take the lead for the first time in the contest as the scoreboard read 17-14 to the Wee Waa team.
Wee Waa then outscored the visitors 7-1 on the last six ends to claim a 24-15 victory.
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