NSW & QLD claim fours honours
New South Wales and Queensland have emerged victorious in the men’s and women’s fours respectively at the 2020 Australian Championships at the Dandenong Club tonight.
In the men’s event it was Warilla’s Aaron Teys, Corey Wedlock, Brendan Aquilina and Jamie Turner who boasted an undefeated day and survived four epic encounters to claim the gold medal.
The quartet’s opening match of the day was against Queensland’s eventual bronze medallists John Newell, Jade Groenewege, Sean Baker and Sean Ingham, who they overcame with an 18-15 victory, commencing their campaign in scintillating fashion.
The tight finishes would continue, as Teys did what he does best and delivered in the big moment against Victoria, sealing a 12-11 win with the final bowl of the match, sending his trio of teammates into raptures.
The climactic finishes were not done, with the champions being pushed to a 12-12 draw against South Australia, but it was enough to seal their spot in the decider, with Western Australia waiting.
Following a tight tussle, New South Wales managed to break out to a 13-7 lead with two ends to play before skip Daniel Trewhella produced arguably the bowl of the tournament.
Needing to collect a large sum, Trewhella conjured up a delivery that would knock away the only opposition bowl within the vicinity of the jack, with his staying in the count to score a whopping five to bring them to within one shot going into the final end.
The champions would claim that tense end by one shot to emerge victorious 14-12 and claim the state’s fourth gold medal of the week.
Teys complimented Trewhella’s game and said he always supports fantastic bowls, even if they come against him, while pointing out that the longer ends were a key to winning the final.
“That was scary, we got off to a slow start and their skipper played some absolute bombs tonight,” he told Rinkside Live.
“I’ll cheer a great bowl every day, but don’t get me wrong I can get pretty frustrated when a lucky one goes against us.
“We played one tee-to-tee length and kind of dominated it before Trewhella hit another great shot, but we managed to come away with a multiple so we thought we’d do it again.”
The women’s tournament commenced in the early hours of the morning with the sunrise peaking through the Melbourne cloud cover.
It was the Queensland foursome of Isabella Lawson, Leigh Fortington, Maria Rigby and Ester Regan who edged out Tasmania by shot differential after the five sectional rounds.
They commenced the day with a 20-12 victory over the ACT, before following up with a 21-13 win over New South Wales to apply pressure on the rest of the field.
Their penultimate matchup against their closest rivals Tasmania was touted as the match of the day, and the ladies from the Apple Isle emerged with the chocolates with a score of 17-10, meaning that whoever won their final encounter with more shots would win the title.
Queensland came up against Victoria, while the Tasmanian quartet of Candice Ayten, Kim Saunders, Jessica McMullen and Mikayla Baker faced the ACT.
It was the Maroon state who claimed a three shot victory and ultimately the gold, with Tasmania winning but only by two, meaning they would have to settle for a fourth silver medal of the week, while New South Wales took home bronze.
Bowls Australia acknowledges the support of the Victorian Government in the delivery of this event.
