Jackaroo men take 8-nations overall title

by admin on August 31, 2013

Reigning International Bowler of the Year, Ettalong Memorial’s Aron Sherriff has guided the Aussie men’s team through the final match of the men’s singles to guide the team to a gold medal victory in that discipline, defeating Canada’s Ryan Bester 21-16.
The men’s singles gold medal is just one of three that the Australian team secured at the traditional Commonwealth Games host city lead up event in Glasgow over the past week.
Our Vision Impaired Mixed Pairs combination of Marian Morrison (Director – Beatrice Kassulke) & Tony Scott (Director – Peter Scott) prevailed in the gold medal playoff over Wales 15-10.
The culmination of a strong week by all of the Australian men didn’t go unrewarded as the team of Aron Sherriff, Mark Casey, Brett Wilkie, Nathan Rice, Wayne Ruediger, Barrie Lester and Matthew Flapper claimed the overall gold medal across all four disciplines, commencing with Sherriff, Rice and Lester winning a gold medal in the men’s triples earlier in the week and a silver medal in the fours on the penultimate days play and in the pairs early in the championships augered well for the well deserved honour.
Australia’s tour proved to be an indifferent event for the Jackaroo women with strong player rotations throughout the week in a search and discover mission to identify the right the combinations.
Our Women’s fours provided the biggest highlight with a 3rd place and bronze medal in the fours while the girls could only manage an 8th placing in the singles, 7th in the pairs and 6th in the triples.
“Despite the boys doing a great overall job, we as selectors took a lot of learnings from the tour as a whole and will now continue training here for a week and come home and review the performances overall,” National coach Steve Glasson said.
“The girls had a tough week from a winning perspective but there were certainly some positive signs from some individuals which just didn’t materialise into crucial wins that we needed.”
“The opportunity to have exposure to the greens in Scotland and the best nations in the world was a great learning experience for everyone.”
Results listed below (and who represented Australia in finals)
GOLD MEDAL
Men’s Singles (Aron Sherriff v Canada 21-16)
Men’s Triples (Barrie Lester, Nathan Rice, Aron Sherriff v England 15-12)
Vision Impaired Mixed Pairs (Marian Morrison & Director – Beatrice Kassulke & Tony Scott & Director – Peter Scott v Wales 15-10)
SILVER MEDAL
Men’s Pairs (Brett Wilkie & Matthew Flapper v Scotland Clyde lost 11-12 in gold medal playoff)
Men’s Fours (Wayne Ruediger, Mark Casey, Nathan Rice, Matthew Flapper v NZ lost 12-21 in gold medal playoff)
BRONZE MEDAL
Women’s Fours (Claire Turley, Natasha Van Eldik, Karen Murphy, Kelsey Cottrell v England 24-13)
Other overall placings;
Australian Bowlers with a Disability (AWD) – 4th place
Women’s Triples –  6th place
Women’s Pairs – 7th place
Women’s Singles – 8th place