The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Burnett’s wonder bowl before bowing out
A wonder bowl from Darren Burnett secured a place for Stewart Anderson and the Arbroath community police officer in the quarter-finals of the ‘Just’ World Indoor Pairs Championship at Potters Resort in East Anglia.
A spot in today’s semi-finals seemed to be beckoning yesterday when the 2016 world champions took the first set off the two topranked players in the world, Greg Harlow and Nick Brett.
However, the England duo got their game together, scored a count of five shots on the fourth end of the second set and went on to win 3-6, 11-4, 2-0.
The semi-finals are very nearly an all-England affair, with Irish-born Scot Jonathan Ross, who plays at Paisley, the only exception.
However, a case could be made for Andy Thomson, who was born in St Andrews, introducing a Scottish flavour.
In the semi-finals Ross teams up with England’s Rob Paxton against Lancastrian Mark Dawes and Devon’s Norfolk-born Jamie Chestney, while Suffolk’s Mark Royal and London-based veteran Anglo-Scot Thomson, who is playing as well as ever, take on Harlow and Brett.
Burnett’s bowl that had everyone talking earned them a thrilling 4-5, 10-7, 2-1 victory over Scottish PBA qualifiers Ronnie Duncan and Colin Walker.
The Midlothian duo took the first set but Anderson and Burnett levelled by winning the second.
The tense best-of-three-ends tie-break, in which the first two ends were shared, saw Burnett face a match lie when he delivered his last bowl.
With an opposition bowl only two inches from the jack, Burnett had to draw the shot. Relying on finesse rather than force he did just that, delivering what spectators were describing as the shot of the championship.