Dunedin men’s pairs final goes to the wire

THE Fairfield pair of John Latimer and Roger Barron emerged victorious from a pressurecooker final of the Dunedin Centre open men’s pairs at Outram on Tuesday night.

Of the 44 combinations that began play last Saturday, it came down to an extra end to decide the champion men’s pairs combination for 2018, with the Fairfield duo clinching victory.

The Wakari combination of Darren Wolland and John Magna, which had notched up a series of impressive victories on the road to the final, made an impressive start against Latimer and Barron. They picked up a five on the second end and looked assured of victory when they leapt out to a 102 lead after seven ends.

But on the eighth end, Latimer and Barron hit back, scoring big numbers with a four on the eighth end, a three on the 10th and two on the 11th to lock the decider up at 11all with seven ends to play.

Latimer and Barron then appeared as if they had turned the tide and were about to run away with the title themselves, scoring a further three shots on the next two ends.

But the Wakari duo showed they were far from a spent force, levelling at 16all at the end of the 18 mandatory ends to force a winnertakeall extra end.

In the end it was the shot bowl of Latimer that secured a 1716 victory for the Fairfield combination, which had fought its way through post section play with two close encounters — the first was in the round of 16, a 1917 victory over Michael and Tim Wood (Taieri).

They then accounted for another Taieri combination — that of Ken Walker and Doug Coombes — in the quarterfinal, 223.

In the second close encounter for the pair on the way to the final, they survived several nervous semifinal moments to defeat the Kaikorai pair of Craig McCaw and Geoff Wilson 1917.

In results from the Dunedin centre mixed pairs, Wally Shaw (St Kilda) and Jan Hall (Green Island) defeated Terry Scott (North East Valley) and Carolyn Crawford (St Clair) 1512 to win their first Dunedin centre title.