Wonthella Bowling Club’s inaugural one bowl fours event huge success in fast and furious action

Wonthella Bowling Club hosted its inaugural one bowl fours competition on Saturday and it was such a success that the club hopes it will become an annual event.

One bowl fours is effectively the Twenty20 version of lawn bowls with every end reduced to a one-bowl shootout between competitors with no dead ends allowed.

Still in the traditional fours groups, players from around the Batavia League gathered to fire off their shots across five rounds of 14 ends with the top four progressing through to semifinals.

Brad Preston’s squad were the leaders out of the group stages finishing with 59 points and Kimberley Cross’ men were close behind with 55.

Wayne Brown was third with 49 points and Steve Palmer secured the last semifinal spot with 45 points in a close battle with Vinc Knight (44) and Shane Guidice-Narin (42).

The semifinals were reduced to 10 ends leaving even less room for error but the top two went through with Preston winning 10-6 over Brown and Cross defeating Palmer in a tight match 10-5.

It set up an all-Wonthella Maroon final with team Cross coming up trumps over their intraclub rivals in the final 8-5 and coming away with the $1000 cash prize sponsored by Platinum Electrical.

Organiser Gary Preston said the event was a huge success and he hopes it will become a highlight in the bowls calendar.

“They play it a fair bit on the east coast but this is a first for us in Geraldton,” he said.

“You only get one bowl, so it makes you really concentrate.

“At the start of the day they were all over the place but as the day wore on they got tighter and tighter and made for some thrilling matches.”