MacRobertson Shield Day 17 - The Final Day

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Jack Good, Mark Avery, Samir Patel, James Death, Robert Fulford and Jamie Burch (Photo: Junko Hill)

The final day started with us 7-6 ahead needing 4 wins to clinch the event. If all went to plan, we could win 4 or more of the day's starting 6 singles matches, but if not there was potential to have Jack's unfinished singles from day 15 still going on Monday morning!

With finishing the event in mind Mike Town, the manager, gave us an early 9am start. Things got off to a fantastic start with Rob and Samir both winning their first games +26TP and +26 respectively with James soon following with a +17QP. Rob carried on in good form to finish his match with Paddy Chapman and get the first point of day on the board. The 3 other matches had very tight first games with Mark and Jamie coming out on top, Jenny Clarke nicking the game against Jack. Logan McCorkingdale equalised against James to leave the position at lunch 8-6 to England and with good potential.

The afternoon was blistering hot, 34 degrees in the shade, where the players were not! Playing on the last day of the Mac is enough to fry player's brains on it's own without those conditions.

First to finish was Jamie with a fantastic TP given the conditions to clinch his match against Felix Webby . This was soon followed by Jack losing to Jenny though. 9-7, two more matches needed!

Samir had some chances to win his match against Edmund Fordyce but wasn't quite getting there. James's game was looking close.

Mark was facing taking a lift shot against 4b and peg against Aaron Westerby who was looking in great form. Mark hit and soon had all the balls under control for a triple to begin, but knowing any error would likely cost the game.

While Mark was on his triple, James now had his own crucial last lift against 4-back and peg to stop Logan. He centre balled his 19 yard shot rushing it to corner 4. James was for 1-back with partner ball on penult. He made 1-back and had a break. James peeled penult going to his pioneer at 3-back. The peel went through but the striker's ball was a little short and a resulted in a long approach with landed at 45 degrees to the hoop. James was on court 2 in front on the crowd and you could feel the tension. James smashed a hard jump shot through to terrific applause and now looked in great position to win.

Mark's turn was still going well and with great control he was able to finished without any scares. 10-7. Around the same time Edmund Fordyce clinched game 2 against Samir to make that match 1 game all.

James paused briefly seeing Mark peg out 4 lawns away knowing now he was playing to claim the Shield. The rush on his penultimate pioneer bobbled and after a take off James had a much longer hoop shot than he would have liked. He stuck.

Logan now had a straight forward looking finish for New Zealand, but in the tense atmosphere you never know. He made all the hoops, but had left partner 10 yards from the peg. He got a poor rush on it he needed to cut and only rushed to 4 yards away from the peg. Logan opted to go for a medium paced peg out and the front ball missed! James was in the game again. Logan pegged out his other ball with his last stroke.

James was now rover and rover with a shortish roquet on partner but not great prospects of making rover that turn. James layed up leaving the longest shot at the peg he could, but just having to cross his fingers Logan would miss this and another shot even if he played well. Logan's shot looked close but missed. James made rover with one ball and layed up again. Logan's next shot was under maximum pressure and missed again. James played a sweaty take off flirting with the boundary to get a rush to rover. Rover wasn't controlled and James had a long tonk back towards the peg that landed a couple of feet closer to peg than Logan's rush had. James made no mistake clinching fist as the front ball hit and then having the shortest tap to finish off to his enormous relief and huge applause.

The 4 country's players all came out to join James and congratulations and commiserations were exchanged all round.

Thanks from us to everyone involved in the great undertaking of running the event, particularly the 4 host clubs.

Roll on 2030 in New Zealand.