Jumping jack lifts Gold to another Super 9s lawn bowls pennant

DARWIN Gold has added another Super 9s lawn bowls pennant to their trophy cabinet

Darwin Gold are the Super 9s pennant bowls champions for the fifth consecutive year after beating Nightcliff in a grand final classic. Picture: Supplied

DARWIN Gold has added another Super 9s lawn bowls pennant to their trophy cabinet.

Darwin beat Nightcliff Black 60-56 in a 9s format that produced some thrilling bowling under the dome at Darwin Bowls Club on Sunday.

The Super 9s combines scores from three rinks to produce an overall result.

Both sides stayed close on the scoreboard all day, with Nightcliff pulling to the front by one shot at the halfway mark before Darwin fought back to grab the lead and stay in front for the rest of the championship decider.

Nightcliff won the pairs 19-16, but Darwin bounced back to convincingly win the triples 22-16 and held on in a nailbiting fours competition to win 22-21.

Nightcliff’s Buster Quinlan was placed under enormous pressure on the last end of the triples to score a ‘six’ and force an extra end.

He courageously killed the end three times to give Nightcliff a chance, but a bizarre incident ruined his side’s flag chances.

On the last end the jack got squeezed between two bowls and shot an incredible five feet into the air.

From there it dropped back into the ditch to give Darwin the win.

Barry Orr and Ian Smith (Darwin) led all day in the pairs against Mark Malagorski and John McCallion before being overrun and losing the bracket by three shots.

In the triples Pete Degreenlaw, Colleen Orr and Dimitri Hnaris from Darwin were forced to work hard against Quinlan, Sue Aumann and Dennis Sloane before winning by six shots in a classy display.

John Meneguzzi, Corryn Huddy, Jenny Redshaw and Mark Diamond won the fours by a shot.

But Tiger quartet Louise Hicks, Tony Sullivan, Jock Hicks and Andrew White were gallant in defeat.