#BPL14 the best ever: Murphy
Sydney Lions star and four-time BPL champion Karen Murphy has labelled the most recent Bowls Premier League edition in Moama as one of the best ever.
Speaking to Bowls Australia’s ‘The Right Line’ podcast, the former World and Commonwealth Champion and Jackaroos assistant coach said aside from the positive result, the players were just happy to congregate together and compete again following extended COVID-19 lockdowns across the nation.
“The players were just so happy to be together and actually playing on the big stage, I think everyone really enjoyed it,” Murphy said.
“Putting my work hat on for a minute, as an over all, all the players were really mindful of the COVID situation and took it really seriously.
“Everyone stuck to their guns and didn’t go to restaurants and pubs or things like that and from that angle I thought it was a great event and it just ran seamlessly.”
When it came to an epic final night on the Murray, Murphy admits in the second semi final she thought Brisbane’s Alex Marshall had put the dagger in the Lion’s hopes of a record fourth title before Aaron Wilson stole the show with a magnificent response.
“I think when we were waiting for Tattie [Marshall] to play his last bowl I was thinking, ‘Oh well, I can go back to the room, have a shower, get changed, come back and watch the rest of the night. We made finals, it was a good effort.’,” she said.
“I probably thought that again against Adelaide as well but they were both cracking games and Disco really found his fifth gear on that entire final day, not even the night, he just started.
“He was up and about on the Friday morning and I could just tell that it was going to be good.
“It was nail-biting stuff, those games can all go either way, you can get beaten on a lucky rub or you can get beaten on a really great bowl.”
The former Right at Home Jackaroo’s Lions teammate Ben Twist finished runner-up in the BPL MVP voting and was a member of the inaugural All Star team at the event.
Murphy lauded Twist’s performance and says it is the best she has ever seen him play.
“Benny Twist, it’s probably the best I’ve seen him play, ever, on outdoor or indoor greens,” she said
“He really embraced the skipper’s role initially, and he played really well as skip when he and Omar [Aron Sherriff] used to change over.
“Benny was just awesome.”
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