After decades hunting for it, Lee Stinson finally has his hands on the Orange Eagle's massive, mammoth trophy, adding his name to a long list of some of the best bowlers Orange - and the country - has to offer.
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Stinson and partner Corey Wedlock dominated the final of the Orange City Bowling Club's Eagle, with a 29-3 win over 2019 winners David Moloney and Adrian Bates in the decider.
"Obviously coming from Orange it's been a pretty big bowls tournament for 50 years or more," Stinson said after the win.
"The last 25 years I've seen it and been a part of it, watching guys come and win and there are some pretty big names on the trophy so to be a part of that company means a great deal to me."
Stinson and Wedlock motored through the five rounds before finals without dropping a game, taking the second seed into the top eight.
They had a big 27-11 win over Ben and Sam Allcorn in their quarter final but had to fight hard over Warren Cocksedge and Kevin Beatty in a 20-17 semi-final win.
Moloney and Bates, on the other hand, had reasonably tight games the whole way through the finals after only just scraping into the deciders, winning 16-14 in their semi final before prevailing 16-11 over Phil Reynolds and Peter Thelan.
Stinson said there wasn't any secret to the massive win in the final, but the pair wanted to "get on the front foot early".
"We just played the jacks to the lengths we wanted straight up and they didn't quite play as well those first few ends and all of a sudden it was 10 or 12 the difference," he said.
"That's not taking anything away from the guys we were up against, they were last year's winners and they're quality players.
"It wasn't their best day today but to win it and come back and make it all the way through finals was a great effort."
The duo came together by chance, with Stinson reaching out to Wedlock a few weeks before the tournament.
"He was busy but to have the time for him to come up here was great to get a game together and a few wins," Stinson said.
Wedlock loved the chance to compete for what he said was one of the country's best lawn bowls titles.
"It was my first time out here and I've played a lot against Lee but never with him so it was nice to get the win," the Warilla-based bowler said.
"I've been wanting to play for a couple of years now but haven't had the chance, it's got to be one of the best trophies going around and obviously been going for a while so it's very prestigious.
"Conditions were tricky today yesterday but today was probably the best day and probably the best the green's run, too - there was a bit more pace to it. We had a bit of a crowd and it was a good atmosphere."
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