Victoria dethrone NSW in Alley Shield hunt
Victoria have caused a boil-over at the Australian Sides Championships, dethroning defending titleholders NSW in round four. Victoria have claimed the biggest scalp of their Australian Sides Championships campaign, toppling defending titleholders NSW this afternoon in the men’s Alley Shield competition.
Despite losing two of the three rinks on offer at Queanbeyan, the Victorian team clinched victory courtesy of a massive 10 shot win by Australian Jackaroo Aaron Wilson’s team over triple international bowler of the year Aron Sherriff, 24-14, which netted them a combined 61-58 victory across the three teams.
The Big V are now firmly in the box seat, one game clear of the Blues, and have set themselves up for a huge conclusion to the event, with three matches remaining against Northern Territory, Western Australia and Tasmania over the next two days.
Without getting to far ahead of the results, if Victoria can go the distance over the next three rounds, it will be their first Alley Shield win since 2002, and ninth in 51 stagings.
NSW shouldn’t be ruled out of contention just yet however, and are three rink wins ahead of Victoria; which is the measurement used to determine the ladder positioning after game points, and will look to make amends against ACT, Queensland and South Australia to retain their silverware.
Those three teams make up the log jam of hopefuls stranded on two wins after four rounds, with Queensland ahead by one rink point, followed South Australia, ACT and then Tasmania according to score difference.
Despite a big win over Queensland this morning, Western Australia failed to get the points over ACT in the fourth rubber, and sit in seventh position, with just the sole victory, ahead of Northern Territory.
Wagga Rules’ David Ferguson tops the best performed team standings after day two, with four wins plus 46 shots, followed by Commonwealth Games gold medallist Mark Casey, who is 8 shots behind.
In the women’s Marj Morris Trophy event, Victoria has retained top spot at the half way mark of the tournament, even though they suffered a harrowing loss in the fourth rubber by four-time defending champions NSW.
Victoria captured two of the three rink points, with Chloe Stewart getting the better of Natasha Scott and Lisa Phillips edging out Kelsey Cottrell, but were down on the combined result, with Karen Murphy’s 21-11 win over fellow Australian representative Carla Krizanic enough to keep the Blues in the winners circle, 63-58.
The standings may change dramatically after tomorrow morning’s fifth round though, when Victoria sit out the rubber with a bye, which will give Western Australia the chance to leap-frog them on the ladder, provided they win at least two-and-a-half rinks against Tasmania.
The Blues could also steal back top spot, if they win their match against the ACT by any margin, and are still well and truly in the hunt to retain their crown, given they are the only one of the three states with three wins that have already had their bye, with the Sandgropers scheduled to sit out in the last round.
Rounding out the women’s event is South Australia, Queensland and ACT on one win each, followed by Tasmania who is yet to taste victory.
Click here to view the full results and ladder for the men’s Alley Shield event.
Click here to view the full results and ladder for the women’s Marj Morris Trophy competition.
Day two results:
Men’s Alley Shield:
Round 3: WA bt QLD 68-52, VIC bt ACT 69-53, NSW bt NT 85-34, TAS bt SA 54-53
Round 4: QLD bt TAS 66-51, SA bt WA 64-51, VIC bt NSW 61-58, ACT bt NT 59-48
Women’s Marj Morris Trophy:
Round 3: SA bt TAS 59-50, VIC bt ACT 72-42, WA bt QLD 53-51
Round 4: NSW bt VIC 63-58, QLD bt TAS 67-48, WA bt SA 67-54
