East beats West to take the title Ace-Watson plays the winning hand

Jack East’s resume has become all the more impressive with his somewhat unique win in the Men’s Champion of Champion Singles at Yokine recently.

East is already recognized as a rising star, with Australian Junior titles to his name, and making his debut for the WA State Team last season.

East’s path to the final was not an easy one. In the alignment alone, he faced talented singles player Warren Holt, a former champion of this very event, however East’s form was demonstrated right there as he took a comfortable 21-11 win and marched into the last 16.

East then survived a thriller against Cowaramup’s Mark Lisle 21-20, before another impressive display against State Singles runner-up Blake Butler in the semi-final. Again, East restricted his opponent to just 11 shots, while he piled on 25 of this own.

The final against North Beach's Jerome Clayton started under dull light, and with a power outage in the area the players were unable to continue, instead having to return the following week to complete the match.

Clayton burst out to lead 17-8 however East’s maturity as a player was then on full display as he strung together a run of ends to draw level at 17-17.

From there, an almighty battle ensued with East crowding the jack on the final end to secure the final two shots needed to take the title.

East now advances to represent Western Australia at the Australian Champion of Champions Singles event to be held at Sorrento later this year.

Chris Ace-Watson has been on the radar at the top level of WA bowls for the last few seasons now, and in singles play has been more than impressive.

Three years ago, Ace-Watson was runner-up to Kristina Krstic in the State Singles, and while the effort to get there was brilliant, the final was gone before Ace-Watson even started –this was the chance to rectify those demons.

Ace-Watson’s early rounds included a tough clash against Kerrie Hudson from Morley, however the Kalgoorlie turned Mosman Park star was untroubled right through to the semifinals where a tight clash with Helen Morss steeled Ace-Watson for her final clash. The 25-23 semi-final win was the hard fought win needed in preparation for another highlight clash of her career.

That clash came against Perth Tatts Lisa Smith. Smith progressed after turning the tables on Gingin’s Kathy Gobbart, who defeated Smith in last year’s final of this event. In an amazing match-up that had the healthy crowd hooked, Smith grabbed a four on what would become the final end of match, advancing 25-24.

In stark contrast to Ace-Watson’s previous State final experience, this time she was first out of the blocks grabbing four shots to get the scoreboard moving. While Smith hit back immediately grabbing a three of her own, Ace-Watson would soon put the foot down, running off a string of multiple collects to race to 25, leaving Smith stranded back on 9.

As with East, Ace-Watson now receives the honour of representing Western Australia at Sorrento later in the year.