Denison flies the flag for Mid West at country week as Paul Hitchcock just misses out on slice at history

After seven days of intense competition, the nearly 1000-strong field of players who had come to Perth for the 2023 AFGRI Country Week Championships were whittled to just a handful. Across singles, pairs and fours thousands of bowls were sent tumbling along the greens of various lawn bowls clubs with the finals culminating at Sorrento on Friday. Denison laid claim to their status as the best in regional WA as their fours quartet of Joel Leeson, Peter Leeson, Paul Hitchcock and Ian Payne dominated over Narembeen 21-12. It followed their classy 23-16 win over former winners Mark Szczecinski, Dave Dutton, Clifton Crombie and Steve Sloan as they had to win five straight knockout games to claim the title in a brutal format. In doing so they became the first side from the Mid West to win the fours competition since 2014 as Hitchcock had an outstanding personal tournament making it to the quarterfinals of all three disciplines, the only man to do so across the competition. They were one of only two Mid West sides to survive the knockout stages with Geraldton’s Shane Giudice-Nairn, Michael Ford, Kimberley Trotter and Jon Trotter making it to the last 16 where they fell to Donnybrook in a tough loss 15-14. Guidice-Nairn and Mike Ford did not have the opportunity to defend their pairs title as they didn’t progress past the immense group stages. Hitchcock was the only Northern player to make it to the quarterfinal where he fell to eventual champions Brad Ball and Dominic Milbourne from Pinjarra 14-12. Of the 156 competitors who made it through to the knockout stage, Geraldton’s Matthew Mitchell, Carnamah’s Craig McDonald and Hitchcock all made it through to the quarterfinals. Hitchcock fell to Manurah’s Glenn Dunn 21-18 while Mitchell was outclassed by eventual champions Warren Holt 21-7. McDonald did make it through to the semifinals to be the last Mid West man standing taking on Moodiarrup’s Richard Schinzig for a chance in the final. However, he would fall just short ending up on the wrong end of a closely fought game 21-19.