Grigsby, Ford and Eaton the winners as Binnu triples bowls draw big field at Northampton

Northampton Bowling Club attracted a capacity nomination for this year’s Binnu Bandit triples last Wednesday, with six matches played on a game-on, game-off basis.

The winners on the day were the Geraldton trio of Merv Grigsby, Mike Ford and Jeff Eaton, who were faultless throughout the three-match event, finishing with an impressive 29 shots up.

The long-time annual event was the first official league open men’s fixture on the recently installed synthetic playing surface.

Sides from five clubs within the Batavia League venues took part, creating a new attendance record with competitors appreciating the trueness of the playing surface.

Now deep into its third decade, the triples event has proved the test of time, recording capacity attendance for the past 11 tournaments.

Mullewa’s Vince Knight skippered Greg O’Meara, in his first official outing in open company, along with Glenn Bryant to three wins as well, but they had to be content with second after falling six shots short on a shots-up basis.

The Geraldton side of Neil Exten, Laurence Brooks and John Burnett were third with plus 20 from their three games.

Their clubmates Kevin Robartson, Warren Kennedy and Colin Morgan completed a quartet of undefeated sides on the day, ending in fourth with plus 13.

Rising star Di Knight was dominant at Wonthella’s mixed scroungers on Friday, scoring an excellent 15 points in the final against the quality of Wayne Brown.

Brown finished second, ahead of Paul Johnson and Brian Thomas.

Ernie Ainsworth recorded the highest tally of the day, with a return of 37 points, followed by Knight on 36, Thomas on 33, and Kevin Exten, with 32.

The next tournament on the open calendar is Denison’s Kaka threes on Sunday, followed by individual club championship fours events at each of the region’s venues.