2017 Junior Champions
This week saw the Tasmania Junior Championships conclude at the Invermay Bowls Club in Launceston. The event saw the future stars of our game in action over 4 days in the Boys and Girls Singles, Pairs and Fours disciplines. The junior competitors showed that the future of Tasmanian bowls is looking bright with a fantastic standard of competition on display.
The boys and girls fours was the first event to take centre stage with Josh Appleyard and Lachie Sims defending their fours title with Josh Walker-Davis and Isaac Maughan to win this years boys event. In the girls it was New Norfolk’s Lauren Banks who skipped Jorja Maughan, Logyn Curtis and Amy White (Port Sorell) to win the girls fours.
In the girls pairs it was the Scottsdale duo Logyn Curtis and Olivia Hilder that were the only ones to progress through undefeated with a win and a draw after the round robin competition to claim the 2017 title. While North Launceston’s Josh Walker-Davis and Derwent City’s Isaac Maughan made it a double for the week adding to their fours title by taking out the boys pairs championship as well.
In the blue ribbon singles event Derwent City’s Jorja Maughan took on fours and pairs teammate Lauren Banks. The event was a close encounter with scores seesawing throughout the match with both players taking the lead at different times.
Maughan got out to a lead but then got stuck on 16, while Banks shortened up the length of the ends scoring singles before a double to get to 20 in the race to 21. Maughan however kept her cool and clawed her way back to 19-20 before scoring a two giving her the Tasmanian Junior Girls Singles Title. The game can be viewed on the Bowls Tasmania facebook page.
In the boys event it was Trevallyn clubmates Joshua Appleyard and Lachlan Sims who progressed through to the boys final. Appleyard defeated North Launceston’s Josh Walker-Davis 21-17 in the semi final, while Sims defeated Patrick Oldham (also from North Launceston) 21-10.
Appleyard, playing in his last junior event before turning 18 next month, jumped out to an early lead in the boys final while sims kept trying to edge back into the game. Appleyard however dominated all game before eventually taking out the title 21-8, making it back-to-back wins in the Tasmanian Boys Singles and capping off a strong junior career.
