Top end bowlers having success at the Australian Under-18 Championships
The Northern Territory have had a confident boosting start to the Australian Under-18 Championships putting themselves in a strong position to qualify for medal playoffs after a great day one. The Northern Territory can walk away from day one very happy with their achievements after claiming victories in the girl’s pairs, boy’s triples and boy’s fours during the afternoon sessions at Tuggeranong Vikings Club.
In 2014 the NT boys walked away from the national championships without a win to their name; however, the experience of last year has already contributed to an improvement to their performance here in Canberra registering their first win this afternoon against Tasmania.
The girls had one win last year and are already demonstrating their improvement in 12 months with three wins on day one and plenty of competitive matches that could have gone either way.
Northern Territory State Manager Paul Harding is extremely proud of his troops on day one and says the hard work doesn’t stop here; there are still two days to go and plenty more opportunities to get more wins on the board.
“I’m so stoked for the kids who have played so well today; the boys fours is a combination spread out from Alice Springs, Broome, Darwin and Adelaide and they have all combined so well for the first time wining their first match 19-13,” said a proud manager and father of NT representative Jackson Harding.
“I really do believe our boys and girls are capable of more victories this week but whatever happens I know they will play the game in the right spirit and keep fighting in every game.
“I’m personally really enjoying the experience being here in an official capacity, last year I was just a parent watching on from the sidelines and this year I put my hand up to get more involved and I’m grateful for the opportunity Bowls NT have given me to be here this week.”
In the boys singles dual Youth Commonwealth Games gold medallist Jono Davis stole victory from the jaws of defeat against Victoria’s Jayden Christie picking up five shots in the last three ends to come back from a 16-20 deficit.
Davis may almost be out of medal contention in the boy’s pairs having lost both his matches on day one at the hands of Victoria and the ACT.
Logan O’Shaughnessy and Jaidyn Cartledge got the ACT boys on the board with a strong victory over the defending pair’s champions, Issac Rayner and Jono Davis 23-16.
Tiffany Brodie capitalised on her strong performance this morning to make it two from two in the girl’s singles; she will meet ACT’s Jessica Hogan in the final sectional match tomorrow afternoon who defeated Molly Wilton (NSW) 21-9 in her second round match.
In the other girls singles section Australian Open Junior Singles Champion Sophie Young will meet Tasmania’s Makayla Gibson who are both undefeated going into the deciding match; the winner will move into the gold medal playoff and likely meet Brodie or Hogan depending on the result of their match.
South Australia has been flying under the radar until now; their boys disciplines have gone through day one undefeated after six matches and are all of a sudden in a position to knock off the powerhouse state NSW and advance to four medal playoffs.
South Australia defeated ACT on four rinks and this afternoon went on to defeat a very strong Victorian outfit in both the pairs and triples to advance to the top of the ladder.
Tomorrow South Australia and NSW will meet in the final round of triples sectional play with the winner to progress to the gold medal playoff; in the pairs South Australia is one game clear however will still need to defeat NSW to secure a spot in the gold medal playoff.
The Queensland girls have also gone through day one undefeated and will come up against Northern Territory tomorrow morning in the pairs and triples and then finish the day off with four tough games against Tasmania.
Day two matches will commence at 9.00am tomorrow morning with girls pairs & triples and boy’s singles and fours kick starting the day.
To view the full results, team line-ups and current ladders click here to visit the Australian Under-18 Championships website.
