Marshall honours his mother with Australian Open Fours victory
Alex Marshall has steered his international raiders to victory in the Australian Open Men’s Fours. The Australian Open Men’s Fours trophy will cross international shores with the dynamite Scottish combination of Alex Marshall, Paul Foster, Darren Burnett and Ryan Burnett claiming victory in today’s live streamed broadcast match here at the Broadbeach Bowls Club.
In honour of Alex Marshall’s mother who sadly passed away while Alex has been here competing in Australia, the four international stars put on a clinic, showing why they were hot favourites to claim the $12,000 first prize.
The champions paid tribute to Alex’s mother in their post-match interview who was clearly an avid bowls supporter and would be thrilled to see their success in the World’s Biggest Festival of Bowls.
There was no doubting that the Scottish Team had saved their best to last here in Australia, having already been in the country for 3 weeks competing in the Gold Coast Multi-Nations, and of course their lead Ryan Burnett who has moved to Broadbeach to help his aspirations of joining is big brother, Darren Burnett, in the 2018 Commonwealth Games Team.
Not to be outdone, Sean Baker’s fours team of Robbie Wild, Jade Groenewege and Sam Laguzza went toe to toe with the heavy weights for majority of the match, with just a couple of multiple counts going in favour of the Scot’s to break the game open with only a third of the 15 ends to go.
The first 10 ends of the match were about as good as it gets, with all eight players contributing to the high quality encounter which was live streamed, viewable through the Bowls Australia website and Facebook page.
A drive from Alex Marshall when Baker’s team looked set to make a late surge to the finish line ended up being a five shot turn around and a complete game changer for the international raiders.
Baker’s composite side, which came together at the last minute due to a late withdraw, were on the back foot for the remaining ends of the match, and whilst they held shots it was never going to be enough to break some of the best players in the world.
The final score ended up 13-9 after Baker’s team clawed their way back from a 3-10 deficit, which came about from losing five consecutive ends.
Over 13,000 people have tuned into the live stream with 177 people sharing the content already; this video will remain on the Bowls Australia Facebook page for others to go back and view at any time which we highly recommend as the quality of bowls was simply extraordinary.
To view the match click on this link.
Caption- Alex Marshall has steered his international raiders to victory in the Australian Open Men’s Fours.
