November 04th, 2017

2017 Fours Champions - David Hagley, Fred Alexander, Chris Carey & Rod Silber (skip)

David Hagley, Saturday, 4 November 2017.
The 2017 final of the Club Men's Fours ChampionshiAnd, well done to all eight finalists.   Our apologies that the order for fine weather didn't eventuate. p was held today and our Champions are the team of David Hagley, Fred Alexander, Chris Carey and skip Rod Silber.   This foursome beat Sid Cagaoff, John Donnelley, Michael Macourt and Joe Shofer (skip) 23 shots to 17 in attrocious weather conditions.   
 
With Joe Shofer directing the play and pulling the strings at skip, the underdogs got away to the perfect start and led 7 to nil before Joe requested a rain delay after the 4th.     When the heavy rain cleared to a drizzle the boys returned and as soon as Silber got the mat, he turned to plan B - his traditional long ends.     The ongoing rain continued to make bowling extremely difficult but team Silber appeared to be handling the difficult conditions and long ends better than their opponents.   To show their dominance, in the 10 ends between the 7th and 16th, Silber's foursome won all ends and picked up a massive 21 shots.    At the end of the 16th they had therefore raced to a 22-8 lead and the match was all but.    It was going to take a monumental effort to come back from this position but Shofer's team rallied with short ends to win the following four ends and to bring the score to a challenging 22-17 in favour of Silber.   With a single shot on the last, the final score was 23-17 to Silber and the eight players moved to the warmth and comfort of the clubhouse to enjoy a welcome drink.
 
On the way to their win Silber's team created a number of interesting facts.   Hagley, Alexander, Carey & Silber have now won the final of the Fours Championship four years in succession (2014, 2015, 2016 & 2017), thus creating a club record.    Chris Carey has now won the Fours on 7 occasions, exactly the same number of Fours Championship wins as his father - as they say, 'like father, like son'.     However, it should be noted that Fred Alexander has achieved this feat an unbelievable 12 times, his first dating back to 1988 - it appears to many, that the more Fred practices the luckier he gets!!    But wait for it, here's another amazing fact emanating from today's game:    Chris Carey has now achieved the honour of playing in all four Men's Championship finals this year (Singles, Pairs, Triples and Fours) for a 50% strike rate (Club Champion in Singles & Fours).   Well done Chris. 

And, well done to all eight finalists.   Our apologies that the order for fine weather didn't eventuate.