Duo overcome pain of 2013 to be crowned champions
AFTER a six-year partnership, which saw a tie-break loss in the final against Alex Marshall and Paul Foster in 2013, Blantyre-based Stewart Anderson and Arbroath’s Darren Burnett finally got their hands on the Just Retirement World Indoor Pairs title with a straight-sets victory over Scottish international colleagues Ronnie Duncan and Colin Walker from Midlothian.
The best of two sets of eleven end game was a tentative affair but, despite an array of precision draw shots and dramatic firing exchanges, the match never really caught fire.
Duncan and Walker led 6-5 in the first set after seven ends but Burnett and Anderson, made the break with a treble and back to back singles to lead 10-6 and were content to drop a single on the last to win 10-7.
In the second the Midlothian duo once again scored an opening end double but Anderson and Burnett made impressive ground, chalking up three singles in a row followed by a double and treble to take an 8-2 lead before Duncan and Walker replied with a single.
However, the match turned on the eighth end. With four shots against him, which would have given Duncan and Walker a lifeline back into contention, Burnett played a miraculous timing shot where he skinned the middle bowl against the jack and pushed it towards the back to the rink and when the dust settled he counted a double which gave them a 10-3 lead, however had he missed that head then it could very well have been a different story which would have seen the Midlothian pair cutting the deficit to 7-8 with three ends to play.
With that scare behind them, Anderson and Burnett were content to play it safe and leave Duncan and Walker searching for shots.