England’s Paxton scrabbles past Aussie Brown into the quarters

8 March, 2017

Final match of the day was between Australia’s Kurt Brown and Englands Robert Paxton. It was Brown in the first set that was leading the way, 4 all on the 5th end Brown outbowled Paxton over the next 3 ends to go 8-5 up in the 8th end and then in the 9th end disaster struck, with Brown holding a further two shots a drive by Paxton caught a front bowl - this shot forwards and moved the jack and at the same time took out Browns nearest bowls and left Paxton with a cruel count of 4 for the set at 8-9.

A stunned Kurt Brown tried to rally himself going into the second set and both players seemed to get a little awkward as bowls became loose and short. Neither player getting good bowls away and by the 7th end it was a scrappy 5 all score - then Brown just seemed to go walkabout as he let Paxton in on the 8th end to steal a count of 3 - this left Brown looking for for a chance to force a tie break and Paxton just held this off to take the set and match.