THE Dubbo Railway pairing of Matt McIntyre and Jay Porter completed the perfect IGT City of Orange Golden Eagle Classic Pairs debut yesterday, taking out the $14,000 tournament with a convincing 12-shot victory in the decider at Orange City Bowling Club.
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McIntyre and Porter secured the comfortable victory on the back of an undefeated campaign, thwarting the almost-Cinderella story of runners-up Marty Gray and Chris Rosanes, of East Maitland, in the final.
Gray and Rosanes qualified as the wildcard pairing after the sectional play but were unable to stop the runaway train that was McIntyre and Porter, who survived a late scare to complete the win.
“We only made a decision a week before it to enter as well, we thought we may as well give it a crack,” McIntyre laughed.
“The greens were good, the weather was good mostly. We’re very happy to win,” Porter added.
After making their way to an 18-8 lead with just five ends to go, Gray and Rosanes threatened a miracle comeback, making up two shots in the next two ends.
But some clutch bowling from Porter ensured the Dubbo pairing would earn a debut victory, winning back three shots in the 19th, and one more in the 20th to give them an unassailable lead, and the win.
“You’re always a chance (to win) when you enter something, it just depends on the luck of the game,” Porter said.
“Luckily it fell our way.”
Despite the convincing nature of the win, McIntyre said the clash was never as comfortable as the result suggests.
“No, not at all,” McIntyre said.
“You’re never comfortable against quality opposition like that. They have no real weaknesses so once we got ahead we just needed to keep our foot on the gas, and get home.”
McIntyre and Porter earlier accounted for Illawarra-based WP/WC bowlers Bill Todd and Paul Robertson in the semi-final, and said they will “absolutely” return to defend their title in 2016.