Both the Renegades and  Warriors from the Tathra club overcame their opposition in the semi-finals to lock in a head-to-head clash. 

In the morning semi-finals it was the Renegades who appeared to be in the box seat to claim the prize as they demolished the Merimbula Dolphins. 

Tathra champion James Reynolds led the way for his team with a comprehensive 32-11 victory over the Dolphins’ Dave Shortal. 

A six-time Victorian state pennant champion Merimbula’s Shortal, who is well regarded in the sport, was dealt a cruel hand early in the game with two well targeted drives turning sour on him.

This allowed Reynolds to set up a match winning lead, which he steadily built on.

In the triples it was again the Renegades that controlled the game recording an 18-15 victory, while Merimbula’s pair’s combination of Michael Wilks and Greg Halloran managed a draw in a high standard game against Tathra’s Anthony McKenna and Greg Mallard.

In the other semi-final it was the Tathra Warriors’ John Chalker that set the trend for his troops as he burst out of the gates with an early 16-1 lead in his singles match against Bega’s Adam Taylor.

With the triples and pairs games level, it appeared the horse had bolted before it really began for the event host Bega. 

With Taylor on Chalker’s heels, he slowly chipped away at the deficit and with the triples combination holding their own, Bega club champion Howard Blacker started to stamp his mark on the game. 

With the margin cut back to single figures the Bega pairs team pulled away from the Warriors and with a count of six on the ninth end overall scores were almost level.

Chalker managed to keep his composure over the closing ends of the singles game holding off a gallant Taylor to win 24-17. 

With the triples scores level and Blacker holding a 10-shot advantage Bega appeared set to produce a remarkable comeback,

The triples went down by a 10-shot margin and things looked dire for Bega, but a phenomenal pairs game saw them on the brink of a draw. 

Reynolds said a thrilling drive from Tate quashed Bega’s hopes in the pairs. 

“With last bowl of the match and facing a draw Tate drove at the head claiming the win for Tathra,” Reynolds said. 

Reynolds said he and Tate were unable to play in the final due to prior commitments, but were “ably replaced by Richard Sinclair and Geoff Munz”.

Reynolds said any idea the final would be a relaxed game went out the window quickly as early bowling was intense. 

“Any questions were quickly diminished by the early intensity.”

Reynolds said John Chalker was exceptional in his singles match, but Greg Mallard was unlucky to lose by a big margin. 

“The singles was a great match with John Chalker taking out Greg Mallard by 15 shots,” he said. 

“However, Greg held numerous shots, but could not contain the conversion shots from John.”

While Chalker was having a storm of a game, Reynolds said the triples was a much closer match. 

“The less experienced trio of Peter Rose, Larry Seely and John Black seemed out of it against the more experienced Barry Lemon, Gerry Lay and Hedley Waugh. 

“However, they stormed home to claim a slender win.”

Meanwhile the pairs was another close battle.

“Richard Sinclair and Anthony McKenna held a strong lead over Terry Wilson and Geoff Munz.

“However, Munz converted a huge five-shot play late in the match to reduce the margin,” Reynolds said. 

It was enough for the Warriors to sneak through with the win by a narrow margin. 

This year’s event has seen great representation with nine teams from Merimbula, Tathra, Candelo, Tura Beach and Bega contesting the men’s event and six in the ladies with Tura Beach, Candelo, Merimbula and Tathra competing. 

The afternoon saw not only an all Tathra final in the men’s event but also an all Tura Beach showdown in the ladies event. 

The ladies semi finals had been played a week earlier leaving the Tura Twisters to face the Tura Tornadoes in the final.

The Twisters claimed the trophy 53-47.