Brothers Aaron and Nathan Smith caused a major upset when they took out the 2017 Bowls WA Men’s State Pairs championship, winning the final at Doubleview Bowling Club.
They combined as one of the youngest pairings to have claimed the title being just 22 and 26 years old and in doing so showed nerves of steel winning all their knock out matches by less than three shots.
They defeated defending champions Shane Knott and Anthony Williams from Manning who endured a tough run throughout their campaign to make the final.
It was a high quality final in difficult conditions with a blustering wind around for most of the game that went right down to the last bowl of an extra end.
The match didn’t start well for the Smith’s as they trailed early after dropping a five on the second end but took the lead via a false shot from Knott a few ends later.
The Manning boys began to rally, Knott in particular starting to draw very well as they stormed back to put the brothers under pressure.
As a consequence the Smith boys went away from the game style that built them their lead and began to use more weight than they had been.
In the ends 10-17 Smith was outscored 1-14 to be behind by three shots going into the last end.
Holding two Aaron Smith played his final bowl looking to remove an opposition bowl and stay for four and the win, on target he managed to clip half the bowl turning it out but causing his bowl to run out of the head for three. Playing a runner he looked close to pick up the jack but a collision with one of his second shots caused him to get out the shot bowl to hold game.
Knott had a chance to run the now shot bowl out of the head but missed tight, giving the Smiths the title. The win is the first open division title for either of the brothers.