Darwin Gold takes Top End Shield Flag 3 years running

by admin on 10/11/2017

Darwin Gold has beaten last years runner up Darwin Blue to take out the 2017 Top End Shield. The finals for this years Top End Shield saw some surprises with Katherine too strong for Nightcliff Gold in the elimination final to advance to the Preliminary final, and Darwin Gold losing one rink but too strong in the second rink to win through to the final over Darwin Blue.
This set up a tight match between Darwin Blue and Katherine in the Preliminary Final which saw Darwin Blue proved their ability to bounce back and win in a close encounter.
The final showdown was set up between the two home teams under the cover at Darwin Bowls Club.
Gold came out of the blocks strongly and got away to a big lead early on leading the big board 22/2 after 12 ends. Darwin Blue appeared to take some time to recover from the earlier match against Katherine but settled and began the task of whittling down Golds lead shot by shot. With five ends to go, DeGreenlaw’s rink hit the front and Corowa was only 7 shots down making it an overall 5 shot deficit. Smithy was able to fight back winning a 5 with 3 ends remaining and then maintained the lead to win his rink by 3 shots 22/19.
John Meneguzzi kept his lead throughout to win 19/15 sealing the flag for Darwin Gold.