It’s understandable. In his role as bowls coordinator at the Gunnedah Services & Bowling Club his mind is often on making sure tournaments run as smoothly as possible.

It’s hindered his game and has resulted in a lean 12 months for the bowler.

But, the dry spell is over as Thorning combined with Port City Bowling Club’s Cody Griffin on Saturday to win the Oak Tree Retirement Village Gunnedah Three Bowl Pairs Tournament.

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Thorning said he made a point of concentrating more on his game opposed to the running of the event.

“It’s the best I’ve played in 12 months,” Thorning said.

“It’s the law of averages, you can’t keep playing bad. It can’t keep happening.

“Taking on the new bowls [bowls coordinator] job...you can’t take work out onto the green with you.

“It [the job] was in the back of my mind a lot but I had some helpers [on Saturday] running the scores and all that sort of stuff.”

Thorning and Griffin progressed to the gold section final – there were two divisions on the day – after winning a nail-biter against Dave Russell (South Tamworth) and Dylan Eather (Gunnedah).

“We won 8-7 in an extra end,” Thorning said.

South Tamworth pair Terry Preston and Graham Nicholls awaited in the final.

A convincing win followed for Thorning and Griffin with Griffin producing his best.

“Young Cody played very good in the final. He found his line and length,” Thorning said.

With his coordinator’s hat back on, Thorning said the day was “a great result for the club”.

“The greens were full. We didn’t have enough green space to take on other teams,” Thorning said.

“It was wonderful to get so many teams.

“These days it’s hard to get people to these tournaments with people doing it tough.”

While Thorning and Griffin won the gold section it was Dubbo’s Dan Smith and Adam Cochrane who took out the silver section.

The Dubbo pair beat Gunnedah’s Chris Collins and Tim Thorning in the semi-finals before winning the final against Gunnedah pair Mick Hull and Jeff Palmer.