Adverse weather favours underdogs in opening round
The first round of the Australian Under-18 Championships was a plagued with rain but play continued under lights at Holdfast Bay The Australian Under-18 Championships have started in trying conditions here in Adelaide but persistent rain the whole way through last night’s opening round didn’t prevent quality matches being contested.
A mixed bag of results saw underdogs prevail against powerhouse states Queensland and New South Wales, defending champions were defeated and no state went through the first round unscathed.
Defending boys pairs champions Josh Studham and Tyson Wilson (SA) were defeated by Jarryd Davies and Curtis Hanley (VIC) who came home strong against the local hopes, scoring a single shot on each of the five last ends of the match to claim victory 18-12.
There is a chance for redemption with Studham and Hanley going head to head in the first round of boys singles this morning.
Powerhouse states New South Wales and Queensland suffered first round losses in their match up’s with Tasmania and ACT.
ACT’s Jessica Hogan jumped out to an early lead after piecing together seven consecutive ends to lead Queensland’s Jessie Cottell 17-9; however the game was soon in the balance when Cottell struck back to level the match 17 all.
Cottell’s hard work came unstuck when Hogan scored a count of three and went on to score that final shot the very next end.
Two rinks away Hogan’s team mates Logan O’Shaughnessy and Jaidyn Cartledge were having success over a strong Queensland pairs combination of Jake Rynne and Jayden Christie, only dropping four ends to collect their first victory 21-5.
Tasmania’s first win of the championships came courtesy of their boy’s triples team of Issac Maughan, Josh Appleyard and Julian Brown who defeated New South Wales’ Toby Peters, Jayden Gebbie and Jarrod Beckford 17-13.
The last match of the night to be completed was a one shot victory to the South Australian girl’s fours team over Victoria in front of a passionate group of supporters who stuck around in the cold conditions to cheer the girl’s home.
This morning’s matches see the boy’s singles and fours opening rounds and girl’s pairs and triples commencing; the great news is the rain has stopped and play was able to get underway early!
Due to the weather the tournament directors have opted to change the schedule of today’s matches in hope to get four games through whilst the weather forecast promises to be the best of the four days.
Bowls Australia would like to acknowledge the assistance and funding provided by the Australian Commonwealth Games Association to Bowls Australia for athletes in the 2016 NextGEN AUSComGames Squad program.
NextGEN AUSComGames was devised by the ACGA to provide assistance to junior players who have been identified as potential 2017 Commonwealth Youth Games, and/or 2018 or 2022 Commonwealth Games level athletes.
Originally two matches were scheduled to allow the afternoon free to watch the AFL Grand Final; however now the following schedule is in place.
Round 2- 8:15am start
Round 3- 10:30am start
Round 4- 1:00pm start
Round 5- 3:00pm start
To view the results from round one click here.
Caption- Logan O’Shaunghnessy and team mate Jaidyn Cartledge defeated Queensland in the first round of pairs at the Australian Under-18 Championships
