The Annual Pairs tournament at Coco’s Lawn Bowls saw an almost full house with 15 pairs lining up to challenge for the trophy and a share of the 22,000 baht prize money.
This year – after a few suggestions – it was decided to have a one day event, no matter what time it finished! The four leagues were drawn and it was game on at about 9.30am.
Darren and John celebrate with the Coco Club Annual Pairs trophy.
League A saw the teams of Frank/Sue and Num/Vinai taking comfortable wins. League B was similar with team Eng/Yung coming in 22-2 winners and Team On/Dennis taking their match 15-3. League C was a surprise with Thong/Yuppa springing from the blocks with an easy win over Darren/John 13-7, that woke them up. League D, as expected, went with team Tan over Ken/Derek but there was a real upset with out of sorts Go/Buzz going down 5-14 to newcomers from the Parardise team of Boonluck.
In general, it went this way and despite a huge win in League B for Kevin/Terry 25-4 over the second string team Dome from Paradise, they fell short of a quarter-final place on shot difference.
The big changes were in League D where Team Ken took a win over the Army team of Go, who themselves then turned on an inspirational performance to beat team Tan 14–2, but it did not help them as Team Ken finished as the league winners ahead of team Tan.
The quarter finals started to fall into rankings and local knowledge and they and the semis were all close affairs but they produced a Darren/John versus Frank/Sue final. After the 10 ends the score was 9-9 and an extra end was allotted with Team Darren taking the money by one shot and a 10-9 win!
It was a very enjoyable day but with finalists having to play 61 ends of bowls over a six hour stretch. There must have been some sore feet somewhere in the morning.
