After watching Jay Porter and Matt McIntyre stifle an almost-miraculous comeback from Bob Hamilton and John Mobbs to win the 2017 City of Orange Golden Eagle Classic Pairs title, a number of spectators suggested it was one of the best finals – if not the best – in the competition’s history.
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It has a contender now though.
Molong’s Steve Shannon and Glen Miller – the latter plays his bowls for Narromine – emerged triumphant from this year’s grand final on Thursday afternoon, but not before a topsy-turvy affair that ultimately needed an extra end to decide it.
Shannon and Miller were deadlocked with Blakehurst’s Geoff Frost and Leo Gore through 18 ends, at 17-17, but held their nerve under mountains of pressure to claim a one-shot advantage in the sudden-death 19th end and seal the win.
“We’re really happy with that, there was a lot of nervous moments in that final,” Miller said, he and Shannon claiming the lion’s share of the $20,000 prize pool too.
“Stevey’s a champion, it was really him that got us over the line in the end.”
It was Miller’s seventh crack at claiming the trophy and Shannon’s second, and the win was made all the more special by the fact 2018 was the competition’s 50th anniversary.
“The anniversary does make it a bit more special,” Miller said.
“We had plans to come through this far and win it, we were pretty confident, but it was tough.”
There was a lot of nervous moments in that final.
- Glenn Miller
Tough is right, considering the duo had to knock off Molong’s Bob Hamilton and Gulgong’s John Mobbs in the semi-final just to get a crack at the title.
“They’re pretty handy those two,” Miller said.
They did though, and they’d beaten Ned Kurta and Gus Weekes in the quarter-final too, after finishing on top of section six.
They did so reasonably comfortably, losing just one game on their way to top spot.
That was to Nev and Glenn Seton, but it didn’t impact Miller and Shannon’s final standing, they still came out on top of the group with a stunning record and plus-61 combined margin.
Frost and Gore finished on top of section four, after losing their first game by 14 shots they improved steadily before, stunningly, knocking off three-time champion Bernie Diduszko and his partner Kaleb Weekes in the quarter-final.
Frost and Gore took down Joel Diduzsko and Peter Gonzales in the semi-final on Thursday morning, before just falling short that afternoon.