SO CLOSE: Orange City's Steve Carr, Lee Stinson, Glen Robinson and Ben Callaway Photo: STEVE GOSCH 1018sgbowls
THE combination of Steve Carr, Ben Callaway, Glen Robinson and Lee Stinson will join forces again in 2013 after going so close to winning a state title on the weekend.
The Orange City team finished runners-up at the NSW Lawn Bowls state fours championship at Soldiers Point.
In Sunday’s final, Orange City took on Roselands with the zone 13 team coming out on top 23-15.
Carr said Roselands, which included former Australian representative Cameron Curtis and former NSW open winner Carl Healey, were too good.
“We just weren’t ourselves at one end. They’re a quality side and they punished us for that,” Carr explained.
“They were a bit too consistent.”
Things were tight early in the final but Roselands had a 13-10 lead after 12 ends in the 21-end decider.
They stretched this out to 20-11 after 15 ends and were able to maintain a gap for the win.
“In the final, we played pretty well,” Carr said.
“There was one end where we dropped a six and it’s pretty hard to come back from that.”
Carr admitted the Orange City players couldn’t be disappointed with their result.
“Everyone’s happy,” he said.
“That’s a really big deal to make a state final. We beat a lot of NSW and Australian players to make the final.”
The Orange City team performed well from the first game where they downed Coffs Harbour’s Park Beach 20-18.
“We played one of the favourites in the first round. I don’t think anyone expected us to beat them. We played well to beat them,” Carr said.
Orange City, representing zone 5, then turned in a solid performance to beat Soldiers Point 22-16.
The Orange team kept its winning form going in the semi-final where it accounted for North Sydney 20-13 to earn a place in the final.
The second place was a case of deja vu for Carr as he was part of the Orange City team which was runner-up in the state fours in 2004.
After the team’s success, Carr expects they will be back in 2013 for another attempt at a state title.