#BPL10: By the Numbers
With the dust now settled on yet another memorable edition of the Bowls Premier League (BPL), Aaron Delaporte takes a forensic look at how BPL10 fared by the numbers, with records and firsts aplenty.
New faces
BPL10 saw the return of an Adelaide team and the emergence of the Tweed Heads Ospreys & Melbourne Pulse, with all three sides enjoying a successful debut, none better than the Ospreys.
In taking out the title, Tweed Heads joined the Brisbane Pirates (APL01) and Murray Steamers (APL02) as the only three teams to have won the BPL on debut. Seven different teams have also now won the event (Brisbane, Murray, NZ, Illawarra, Gold Coast, Sydney Lions, Tweed Heads).
On the contrast and sadly for the Melbourne Roys, they became the seventh side to collect the wooden spoon by finishing in last place.
Coincidently, a record seven new players made their debut (Chloe Stewart, Kurt Brown, Lee Scharner, Cody Packer, Gary Kelly, Rebecca Van Asch, David Ferguson) and many fared extremely well.
The Ospreys with Chloe Stewart and Kurt Brown as part of their winning team, while Lee Schraner (Perth Suns) and Gary Kelly (Melbourne Pulse) finished in second and third place respectively in the MVP honours.
Ospreys take flight
BPL10 saw the Ospreys become the first side in the event’s history to sit last on the ladder following the opening two rounds and end up as event champions. Only Brisbane (BPL08) who sat eighth after five rounds have risen as far.
No surprise that their improvement coincided with Aaron Teys’ performance in winning the MVP. After not polling a single vote in the opening two games, he played sensationally all the way through to the final thereafter. Teys, who was victorious with the Illawarra Gorillas in BPL09, joins Aron Sheriff (Sydney Lions – BPL04, 05, 06 and Gold Coast BPL07) as the only player to have won back-to-back titles for different clubs.
Records set
The Ospreys set a BPL record in becoming the first side to go through all 14 rounds without losing a tie-break. They won all five tie-breaks they contested.
Teys himself proved himself to be the master of the tie-break. He has played in 30 tie-breaks and won 19 across his BPL matches, with his recent record particularly impressive (11 wins from last 12 tie-breaks).
The competition as a whole also set a new record for drawn sets, with a remarkable 17 drawn sets across the 60 matches. The Perth Suns and Melbourne Pulse both had a record-setting six drawn sets each. The previous record for a BPL was just 11 drawn sets and just four by an individual team.
Sydney Lions became the first side to register 20 shots in a set when they put 21 past Adelaide (21-0) early on in the event. The final score of 21-0 8-6 also equalled the biggest win in BPL history, with Brisbane defeating Perth 10-0 13-0 in BPL04, also by 23 shots. That victory saw Ben Twist join teammate Sherriff as the only BPL players with a +200 shot differential across their BPL careers.
Contribution by Aaron Delaporte (Bowls WA)
