FORSTER bowler Shannon White scored 12 unanswered shots in the final five ends of the Zone 11 champion of club champions final to score a remarkable win over Harrington's Matt Pierce.
White now heads to the State finals. However, Pierce was in the ascendancy when he led 27-19 at one point until White produced a comeback.
The final featured two of the zone's premier bowlers and was played under under clear skies with hardly any wind to speak of - ideal conditions to play bowls.
White opened an early 4-1 lead, but this was quickly turned around by Pierce, who won five ends running, scoring nine shots in the process to grab a 10-4 lead.
Pierce was playing superb bowls, with White just hanging in there, able to score just the occasional single under the relentless pressure.
Due to his high standard of play, Pierce extended the lead to 12 shots at 18-6.
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White was not about to go away and mounted a resurgence to win six ends in a row, and reduce the deficit to three shots at 15-18. Spectators were thinking that the game was going down to the wire, but then Pierce surged again, picking up a couple of threes in the process, and blowing the score out to a 27-19 lead.
With Pierce needing just four shots to clinch the title it was looking very ominous for White. Any mistake from here on could spell the end for him.
Then came the last remarkable twist. Suddenly Pierce lost his touch, and White was all over it. He scored a 3,1 and 4, and it was tied up at 27-27 and was coming home like a train, giving Pierce no respite. He picked up a 1 and a 3 on the last 2 ends to go out in a great comeback from 19-27 down.
White scored 12 shots to nil over five ends to grab the title in a great display of never-say-die bowling.
