Photo credit - Barry Jordan - Bowls NZ

2025 Trans Tasman: Day 2 recap

by Val Febbo on February 1, 2025

With just one day to play in Naenae, the Right at Home Jackaroos sit in pole position to clinch the 2025 Trans Tasman after a successful second outing across the ditch.

Open Men – Australia leads New Zealand 7-5

After ending the opening day at an even ledger, Australia’s men managed to manufacture a small gap thanks to a quartet of wins across the three sessions.

Aaron Teys and Aaron Wilson went down in a tight pairs match in the opening contest of the day, forcing a tiebreak but eventually falling to Shannon McIlroy and Ali Forsyth 6-4 4-9 2-1 before Wilson responded in style to record his first singles win of the event by downing McIlroy 7-7 8-5.

The pairs team would exact revenge in the concluding match of the day, while Corey Wedlock, Lee Schraner and Carl Healey netted a perfect record in triples action, winning both matchups for the day.

Fours action saw the Blackjacks clinch a 14-10 win to narrow the gap to just two with six matches to play on Sunday.

Open Women – New Zealand leads Australia 7-5

The Blackjacks women were on song throughout the day, negating a strong challenge from the Australians to secure a two-point gap with three sessions to go.

Both nations split the first two sessions, with New Zealand securing a pairs win in the morning and a singles victory prior to lunch, while Australia’s Chloe Stewart, Natasha Van Eldik and Kelsey Cottrell clinched a triples win before combining with Kristina Krstic to edge their counterparts in a tight fours matchup.

The concluding contest saw the Blackjacks edge the green and gold contingent 15-12 in a thrilling triples encounter to gain the 7-5 buffer.

Para – Australia 6-6 New Zealand

Both nations split the two respective sessions on day two with the morning going the way of Australia, which saw three thrillers with the same amount of shots scored.

The away team managed to win a B6-B8 mixed pairs clash before Jake Fehlberg and Jacky Hudson secured a vital win in the vision impaired mixed pairs.

New Zealand gained the ascendancy in the lunch period, conquering the men’s and women’s matchups with the vision impaired contest once again going the way of the Australians.

Should Sunday’s sessions be split between the teams once more, the shot differential will come into the equation with New Zealand nine shots ahead with six rubbers to come.

Australia A v New Zealand Development – Men – Australia leads New Zealand 8.5-3.5

The Australia A men require just one win to ensure victory on Sunday after netting a further two salutations to the day one tally on top of a draw.

New Zealand’s development team took honours in both pairs matchups against Nathan Black and Ben Twist, while Kane Nelson kept his unblemished singles record in tact in the middle session.

Nelson suffered his first defeat of the series in the morning triples session with Nick Cahill and Cody Packer before rebounding in emphatic fashion to win the final session 29-8.

The draw came in the fours, where Cahill, Packer, Black and Twist found themselves at 11-all after 15 ends.

Australia A v New Zealand Development – Women – Australia leads New Zealand 9-3

Like the men, the Australia A women sit just a solitary win away from the overall victory after an undefeated day across the ditch.

Brianna Smith and Jamie-Lee Worsnop needed a literal tiebreak overcome Kim Hemingway and Sarah Scott after two tied sets before winning the second matchup of the day 10-4 6-5.

Cassandra Millerick was brilliant in her singles clash with Lisa Prideaux, winning a thriller 9-5 4-8 5-0, while also winning both of her triples matches with Kylie Lavis and Jessie Cottell.

Smith, Lavis, Cottell and Worsnop were rampant in the sole fours match on day two, winning 21-10.

See the results HERE

The 2025 Trans Tasman runs from January 31-February 2, 2025 at the Naenae Bowling Club with live streaming on Bowls New Zealand’s YouTube channel. View the event programme and schedule HERE.