John Harriott and Breeze Howard were on fire in a tightly contested final. Jim Deacon and Brian Madden. Craig Magic Phillis with Graham Henderson and Chris Hocking with Mick Ryan.
The 2017 Maestro singles have been run and won. The results were as follows: Semi-finals (major grade): Breeze Howard (Yass) defeated Jim Deacon (Coota Ex.), 31/12. John Harriott (Coota Ex.) defeated Brian Madden (Young), 31/20. Semi-finals (minor grade): Craig Phillis defeated Chris Hocking, 31/18. Graham Henderson (Yass) defeated Mick Ryan (Coota Ex.), 31/20. In the final of the major grade it was the Yass Club bowler, Breeze Howard, taking on Coota Ex Services Club bowler, John Harriott. It was a very good game of bowls between two top class bowlers. In the early stages of the game, John was not playing as well as he did in the semi final and Breeze, who was playing very well, took advantage of his opponent being off his game, racing away to a 21/11 lead.
He increased his lead to fourteen shots over the next two ends to make the score 25/11, meaning it was going to take a big effort from John to get up from there. But John was not going without a fight and over the next four ends, played some great bowls to get back in the match, when he picked up nine shots to get within five shots of Breeze at 20/25. Breeze again got away from John, scoring four shots on the next two ends to lead 29/20. John hit back to score seven shots on the next two ends to trail 29/27 and was right back in the match. Breeze, needing just two shots for victory was able to win the match, when he picked up the two shots required to win a great match, 31/27. Breeze has been a first class bowler over many years, first when Yass played in the South West district and now that Yass play in the ACT, he is one of their most talented bowlers. John Harriott is similarly one the South West districts top bowlers.
The major play off for the third and fourth place resulted in Brian Madden getting third money and Jim Deacon fourth money. The final of the minor grade saw another very good game of bowls between local boy, Craig Phillis and Graham Henderson of Yass. There was never more than a couple of shots separating the two right up until the twenty-fourth end, where the score had Graham leading, 23/21. Over the next four ends, Graham was able to get away from Craig and lead 30/21, needing one shot to win. Craig put himself back in the match when he picked up six shots on the next three ends, to trail by three, 30/27. Graham put Craig away when he scored the one shot needed to win, 31/27, and make it a double for the Yass Club.
The play off for third and fourth place resulted in Coota Ex Services bowler, Mick Ryan getting third money while local boy, Chris Hocking got fourth prize.
During the presentation, secretary Warren Chesworth and president Terry Ricketts congratulated the winners an all who had made the finals and all the players from the various clubs who supported the event. Sincere thanks was extended to the markers, green keepers, bar staff and anyone else who helped during the tournament and Jenny Ricketts for supplying the refreshments after the final. A big thank you to our sponsors, for without them, there would be no tournament – they were as follows: Kruger Trust, Twomey’s, South West Slopes Credit Union, Bowling Club and Harden Fuel Supplies.