Tasmanian Singles & Pairs Champions Crowned.
Our 2017 Bowls Tasmania Gala Week, support by the Devonport City Council, has now come to a close with our final disciplines having been run and won.
The last event on our schedule was the blue ribbon singles events. In the men’s final it was our young 20 year old’s Taelyn Male and Michael Sims that were up against each other. Male got out to an early lead on Sims, who had played on the green earlier in the day in the men’s pairs final. Male appeared to read the conditions a little better early on in the match and settled into a rhythm. With scores out to 16-4, Trevallyn’s Sims bounced back with 10 consecutive shots to get back within 2, but Male was still in control and picked up 3 to break the drought. The Kingborough bowler followed that up with a full count of 4 and then a 2 to finish off the match and take the 2017 Tasmanian Men’s Singles Crown. This is Taelyn’s first State Title.
In the women’s final Rae Simpson was out to try and win some success for Trevallyn today when she drew early blood on Vicki Winley. Simpson was well in control at 16-9 and holding 4 in the head, but Invermay’s Winley was not going down without and fight and played the perfect shot to trail the jack and pick up 3 shots to edge within 4 shots of her opponent. Simpson shot out again at 22-14 before Winley got her stuck on that number for a few ends to get back to 22-17. The Tasmanian representative picked up a single before holding a full count to finish out the match and win the prestigious Women’s Singles Title.
For the first time, our Tasmanian Bowlers with a Disability event was also held in conjunction with our open championships. This is an initiative that Bowls Tasmania are extremely proud of and one that doubled the entries in this years event. Defending champion Rick Ormerod from Rosny Park Bowls Club was our first competitor to make his way through to the final after surviving the past two days of competition undefeated. Also unscathed was Westbury’s Colleen Fellows after winning all of her 5 games as well. With both players evenly matched, it was the defending champion who got out to an early lead and managed to stay there. Congratulations Rick Ormerod our 2017 Tasmanian Bowler with a Disability Champion, winning the overall title as well as the physically impaired title. Ravenswood’s Alison Westwood won the Intellectually Impaired Title, Rosalie Simkus the Visually Impaired and Hearing Impaired Arianna (Eddy) Kjaersgaard. Congratulations to all of our competitors.
This morning was the final of our men’s and women’s pairs championships. Wynyard’s Dee Harman and Penguin/Longford’s Alison Venn took on former winners Gaylene Elsworthy (Penguin) and Kim Saunders (Invermay). The match was tight early before Harman and Venn scored an impressive 5 shots to jump out to a slight lead. The coastal girls in orange managed to maintain that lead for the rest of match with a 4 shot advantage going into the last end before claiming the eventual title. Harman and Venn have played together in this event over the past 3 years and are proving to be a strong force in Tasmanian women’s bowls, having both been members of the Tasmanian Women’s team over the past 12months. This is the first state title for Harman, and a second for Venn after she won the State Singles Title last year.
The men’s final was an edge of your seat thriller between Latrobe’s Rodney Horton and Greg Douce and Northerners Michael Sims and Daniel Baker (Longford). Scores seesawed throughout the match, and were eventually all level at 16 all going into the last end. Baker drew shot with his last bowl before Horton played the perfect conversion to shoot the jack out and lock onto one of his other bowls. Douce/Horton held shot when the skips went to the mat with Sims/Baker holding 2 second shots. Sims missed by the smallest of margins with his first bowl while Douce went for cover, then Sims pulled his second bowl tight, giving Horton and Douce the Men’s Pairs Championship. This is the second state pairs title for Douce and Horton after they won the same event 5 years ago, coincidently the last time the same event was held on the North West Coast. Rocket Horton has now won 5 state titles after also winning the state fours earlier in the week, while this is Greg Douce’s 10th title.
Our next Tasmanian Championships will be the State Senior (over 60s) Championships being held in Hobart from February 13th – 17th 2017. You can enter this event by clicking HERE
