Tasmanian Fours Champions
Day 4 of the State Open Championships bring the Tasmania Fours Titles to a close. It was a memorable day for the Douce family, with proud father Hector winning the title with his three sons Tim, Greg and David. This was the first Tasmanian Title for both Hector and David, while Greg won his ninth today and younger brother Tim is chasing him with eight. This is the first time in Tasmanian history that a father and three sons have won a State Championship togeher, while the record keepers are checking with other states to verify whether this could in fact been and Australian record.
After winning this morning’s quarterfinal against the other family outfit of David McLean with his father Geoff, grandfather David Hobbs and father in law Jim Laduke 19-10, they were then pitted against the dream team combination of former Australian representative Lee Schraner, former Australian Pairs Champion Robert McMullen and Tasmanian representatives Darren Monks and Peter Bannister. The semi final went down to the wire with only 1 shot the difference going into the last end, the Douce’s held onto another 1 shot to progress through.
Their grand final opponents were the highly fancied combination of defending Tasmanian singles Champion David Genford, Rosny Park’s Pat Hoffman, North Launceston’s Andrew Whitmore and Australian Under 18 representative Michael Sims. Genford’s team progressed through to the final with a solitary 1 shot victory over the Ulverstone team skipped by Tristan Bakes. However the fairytale continued for the Douce men as they dominated the final from start to finish coming away with the win 24-9.
The women’s fours finals saw the sectional winners progress straight through to the semi finals, with defending champions Rebecca Van Asch, Gaylene Elsworthy, Nicole Smith and Kim Saunders pitted against the Northern composite team of Sally Redman, Margaret Williams, Denise Middap and Rebecca McMaster. It was all one sided for the defending champs though, progressing through to the final with a 21-8 victory. The other semi final saw a very similar score line with Sophie Fletcher, Sheryl Watts, Chris Direen and Satya Springer collecting a dominating win of 22-8 over the experienced Mary Beaumont, Judy Reeve, Erin Sesara and Kelly Furley.
With a rematch of the Northern Fours final that took place a few weeks ago it was Van Asch’s experienced combination of State players that proved too strong for the up and coming Fletcher team. Van Asch’s team collected their second fours title from as many attempts in emphatic style 32-14.
Tuesday 6th January will see the men’s and women’s pairs continue from the round of 16 at North Launceston Bowls Club from 9.30am.
Photo’s of our champions can be found in the gallery at the bottom of this page.
