Bowls: Duo scoop trophy in club's memorial

The duo eventually triumphed over brand new pairing of Mike Tidby and Jim Greatrex, in the club’s popular annual event held since 1998 to honour their late long-term member.

Australian Pairs was selected as the format for this event as it was just becoming popular at the time.

It is now an established style of play in England, a great leveller and a new challenge for those who participate, albeit some complain that more walking is required.

Each league game is played over five ends and the finals over six.

Twenty-four members play in three leagues of eight with each winning pair and the best runner-up going through to the semi-Finals.

This year Peter and Nancy Stafford played Tidby and Greatrex, while Graham Parker and Nigel Apsey faced Wahnon and Living.

Both semis were tight matches, especially when Greatrex, with his last wood of end five, managed to turn a winning lie at 4-1 up into a three-point deficit by inadvertently taking the jack to his opponents’ woods, making the game 4-4 going into the sixth and last end.

Nonetheless, the novice pair managed to retrieve it in the next end, winning by one point to finish 5-4 overall.

In the other semi, both teams went toe to toe throughout but Wahnon’s tactic of taking the mat as far up the green as possible seemed to pay dividends in the end, as he and Living won 6-5 overall.

The final was a repeat of the last league thtrr game but with a very different outcome.

Earlier Tidby and Greatrex, both in their first full season outdoors, just managed to win by taking the jack with their last wood and scraping through by one point.

In the final however, it wasn’t even close. Experience told as Wahnon and Living ran away with the game, winning 10-1 after five ends, as it became mathematically impossible for the new boys to retrieve it.

The event was organised by club captains, Dave and Ena Hicks and the Trophy was presented by vice-president Baden Whitehouse.