Triffitt, Ryman win the double, Schraner breaks his duck plus many more events won!
After a massive week the Bowls Tasmania Gala Week has now drawn to a close.
New Norfolk’s Lyn Triffitt was the star of the day winning the double in the women’s pairs and the blue ribbon singles. Triffitt teamed with Kingborough’s Amelia Bruggy who recently relocated to Tasmania from Victoria to attend the University of Tasmania, to take out the 2018 Tasmanian Women’s Open Pairs against defending champions Dee Harman and Alison Venn.
Triffitt could only enjoy the success for the lunch period before refocusing to take on Venn in the women’s singles final. 2016 Champion Venn lead 20-15, however Triffitt was not to be denied her second state singles title and fought back to score the next 10 shots in the first to 25 decider.
Father/Son duo Luke and Ricky Richardson (South Burnie) were able to hold off a fast finishing Sam & Will Springer (East Launceston) to take the Pairs title. The Richardson’s lead well early but some good conversion shots from the Springer’s saw the game come to live in the last few ends. Defending a two shot lead on the last end, Richardson played a front resting toucher with his 3rd bowl to sink the hopes of the Springer’s with Will unable to play the miracle conversion.
In the Men’s Singles it was Lee Schraner who pulled away from a gallant Gene Ayton. Schraner from Rosny Park managed to secure one of the few titles that he hasn’t won before. Ayton took it up to Schraner early, even putting his nose in front but at the back end of the game, only confusion with the score card could slow Schraner down. The end score being 25-14
The junior boys saw both Semi Finals and the Final played with Isaac Maughan & Josh Walker-Davis both impressive in their Semi Final wins. The Final however, was very one sided, with Walker-Davis making short work of it. Maughan should be proud of his achievements but Walker-Davis was too good on the day.
The Bowlers with a disability also had a two time winner today with Alan Ryman, better known as lefty, from East Launceston taking both medals home with him. In the morning he teamed up with Rick Ormerod of Rosny Park, who is no stranger to winning titles in these disciplines to defeat Colleen Fellows & Charlie Thomas 18-11 with the last end not needing to be played.
Charlie Thomas (Kings Meadows) had a second shot at Ryman in the afternoon, facing off in the singles. But Ryman was in fine form for the day. He jumped out to an early lead and was never threatened. It really was a convincing display from Ryman who impressed the onlooking crowd.
The Bowling Arm Championships were also concluded on the Final day. The Pairs final saw Kevan Gaffney & Keith Beavis start off in red hot form with a 9-0 lead, which was always going to be difficult to peg back. Heather Jones and Owen Preston did get on the scoreboard but the 9 shot head start was always a bridge too far.
Gaffney had a chance to join the two title winners list but fell short losing to the impressive Noel Carlon in the Semi Finals. Carlon took on Joel Reissig but no-one had managed to defeat Carlon over both days and he wasn’t going to let the final be his first loss. Carlon of the Trevallyn Bowls club was too strong and won the inaugural Singles title.
The other champion crowned was Shane Van Riel who was victorious in the Vision Impairment Singles. The players in this category played against other bowlers with a disability and Van Riel was the player that finished on top after a countback. I’ve been reliably informed that Van Riel has shown great improvement over the last couple of years and we all look forward to seeing further advancement over the next few years.
We can’t finish without a big thankyou to all the volunteers that made this Gala Week possible. There was behind the scenes planning leading into the event, plus volunteers at clubs from preparing greens, to manning canteens, to being a match manager on the day, plus umpires and markers and then the people live streaming events. Without all of these people the week wouldn’t have been a success and we thank them all for their efforts.
