3 weeks later than scheduled after the ‘Beast from the East’ snows forced cancellation Event 7 finally got underway on Sunday 25th March with 36 bowlers competing.
The cut for the finals in the Scratch Division was Paddy Dunne (1188) with Alan McDonnell (1195) in 3rd, Alan Bride (1212) in 2nd and Paul Stott Jnr (1247) leading the field with a 249 average.
Jason Byrnes (1213 incl Hcp) led qualifying in the Handicap division with Nickey O’Malley 1205, Paddy Gibbons 1196 and Tom Byrne 1190 took the final position when he rolled a 300 game in the last game of qualifying.
Scratch Semi Finals & Final
In the first Scratch Semi Final Paul Stott Jnr – 206 just edged out Paddy Dunne – 203 while Alan McDonnell struck out for the last 6 balls to beat Alan Bride by 269 to 234 to go thru to the Final.
The Final proved to be a very tight affair with Alan taking an early lead only to be put under pressure to close out the match when Paul struck out for a 235 forcing Alan to mark in the 10th frame and get at least 9 in the fill frame. Alan’s first ball failed to strike leaving the 7 pin which he spared and then rolled a strike to shoot 237 giving him a 2 pin victory.
Handicap Semi Finals & Final
Jason Byrnes took the first Handicap Semi Final with a 228 to 205 win over Tom Byrne. The second Semi Final was closely fought throughout Nickey O’Malley 239 just managing to hold off a late charge from Paddy Gibbons who doubled in the 10th frame to post a 236.
Jason ran out a comprehensive winner when he struck on 8 of the first 10 frames beating Nickey who never got going in the Final by 273 to 166.
Congratulations to Jason Byrnes on his first win of the season and to Alan McDonnell who is having a great season in the Rock Jewellers Singles, Alan has qualified for the Finals in 5 of the 7 events so far and now winning his 3rd event he is still the only multiple winner.
Full details from Event 7 are available on the Rocks Jewellers Tab/Results
With only 2 Events remaining there is still plenty of opportunity to qualify for the End of Season Finals in May
The next event is on Sunday 8th April.