The 2018 Clarence River District Bowling Association (CRDBA) Champion of Club Champion Singles and Pairs were contested at the Iluka Bowling Club over the weekend with Yamba represented by Adam Hart in the singles and Greg Johnson and Martyn Wood in the pairs. Adam advanced to the Sunday afternoon final on the back of a narrow 31-30 win over a courageous John Nash of Maclean but found Peter Gillespie of South Grafton too good in the final going down by 31-24. This was Adam’s first individual championship attempt at district level in his newly adopted home on the Clarence River and he will be the better for the experience and should feature in many more finals in the future. Greg Johnson and Martyn Wood were attempting to defend their title won last year and had to do so under strange and unusual circumstances. Firstly, Greg received a major surprise upon preparing for the quarter-final on Saturday when he unzipped his bag only to discover that he had collected the wrong bag and had to contest the game with bowls belonging to someone else. Obviously, this was no barrier with Greg and Martyn advancing to the Sunday morning semi-finals with a comprehensive win over Neville Henwood and Paul Cubbin of GDSC. With Greg playing with his own bowls, he and Martyn continued to find championship form and they dominated their semi-final against Sep Webber and John Betts of South Grafton taking the match by 26-12. The final was a ‘Johnsonathon’ with Martyn Wood apparently made an honorary Johnson for the afternoon. Greg and Martyn came face to face with Terry Johnson and Brad Johnson of Maclean in what promised to be a true test for both teams. The ‘Johnsonathon’ lived up to expectations with both teams producing high calibre lawn bowling and neither prepared to give the other any easy shots. After the 21 mandatory ends of play the scores were locked together at 15 shots each and an extra sudden-death end was required. The final result was an exciting 16-15 victory for the Yamba side. Greg and Martyn now have their sights set on the Zone One title as an avenue to this year’s State Championships to be played later in the year. Don Freeman