Sez James and Mark Diamond win 2021 Club Singles Championship

THE Darwin Bowls and Social Club singles championships have been played and won.

Rookie lawn bowler Sez James caused an upset in the ladies singles when she beat the well credentialed Colleen Orr 25-8 in the final.

James has only been bowling for two and half years and had already beaten last year’s champion Siobhan Tootell in an intriguing semi-final 21-15.

Orr was too good for another newcomer to the sport, Tania Humphris, in the other semi-final.

James stamped her ownership on the final’s match from the first bowl and proved too consistent for Colleen Orr when recording a comfortable 25-8 win.

In the men’s final Mark Diamond and Trystan Smallacombe went into the decider on the back of convincing wins in their semi-finals.

Diamond beat Peter Wibberley 21-5 and Smallacombe overcame Colin Van Eck 21-7 to give both players plenty of confidence coming into the final.

In a thrilling contest Smallacombe shot out to a 5-nil lead before Diamond won the next 10 ends to race to an 18-5 lead and within sight of a spectacular win.

But Smallacombe showed tremendous courage to come back hard, edging ahead 22-20 before Diamond split a four-shot end his opponent held to take the shot.

After the game, Mark was relieved to have taken his second crown since 2016 after several close attempts in previous years and will now accompany Sez James to compete for the NT Singles Champion of Champions in August this year. Trystan had won four club singles championships in a row until this year, an amazing achievement.