THE Portland Eightball Association hosted its grand finals on Sunday at the Royal Hotel with division one being taken out by Heywood Angling Club while the division two match went down to the wire with The Bandits claiming an 8-7 win.

It was a big day of play with the division one teams, Heywood Angling Club and Royal 1 battling it out for grand final honours.

It was an 8-3 victory for Heywood as they held off a strong start from Royal 1 to claim the win.

Royal player Clint Foster managed to get his team off the mark defeating Mark Betteridge; however, Heywood hit back to earn the next three wins at the hands of Jethro Serle, Ben Moore and Taylor Williams.

Moving forward Heywood dominated, winning the next five from seven games to claim the grand final trophy.

Division two

The division two match was a thrilling contest with The Bandits defeating Royal Whanau by the slimmest of margins, 8-7.

At the end of the singles match ups it was six games each, with three doubles clashes following to determine a winner.

In the first doubles match it was The Bandits duo of Tyson Bates and Matt Bates who defeated Echo Ngatai and Donal Ngatai.

The second doubles clash went the way of Royal Whanau with Caleb Perry and Elijah Ngatai defeating Dylan Bates and Nicky Hudson.

Heading into the third doubles match the scores were seven games each before The Bandits managed to win through the hands of Mitch Williams and John Hurt defeating Robyn Ryan and Adam Nuku.

Other awards

After the grand finals the Portland Eightball Association hosted its presentations for the season with some key members being recognised for their efforts on the table.

Two life members were inducted with high level players Chase Daley and Allan Geraldene acknowledged for their continued contributions to the club on Sunday.

“Both (players) have recently jetted of to South Africa to represent Australia in an international competition,” committee member Conrad Prentice said.

“Chase has done so on multiple occasions, he also holds the Portland Open tournament in June each year, and is the head coach for Australia for the Black Ball competition. He represents Portland regularly in inter town competitions and provides coaching videos on our Facebook page nearly weekly.

“Allan has played internationally, as well as played for Victoria on multiple occasions. He also founded the border cup competition and made sure that Portland always has a team representing and has done a lot to encourage juniors in improving themselves and provided coaching and tutoring in the rules.”

Allan Geraldene also won the division one aggregate with 25 wins while Kim Holmes from division two claimed the overall aggregate for the entire league for the season with 26 wins.