Mixed Fortunes for Jackaroos but Van Asch into Semi
As a whole, the Australian coaches will look back on today with disappointment but for some of the teams, they are still on track to deliver a medal. Today saw the sectional play completed for the able bodied athletes, plus the quarter finals completed, whilst the Para Sport teams had their third round of sectional play.
Rebecca Van Asch (Invermay) played a part in two enthralling matches today. The last sectional play of the Women’s Fours was to be against Malaysia, a team that had also won all three of their games to date. This was never going to be easy and the score line proved this. Malaysia got off to a strong start, picking up a 4 on the 5th end to lead 8-3. Australia slowly pegged back the lead and by the 11th end had brought it back to level at 11 all. Malaysia were not going to be pushed around and continued to lead. In fact at 13-12 after 14 ends had never been behind in the game. Some fantastic bowls by the Australians including an under pressure bowl by the skip Natasha Scott, gave them 2 on the last end and the only time they would lead, a 14-13 victory.
The other Able Bodied Australian teams had all locked in their Quarter Final spot, with only the Men’s Triples not finishing on top of their section. The draw for the Quarter Finals sees all second place teams randomly drawn against the Winners of the sections, and for both Women’s disciplines, they would play against countries from their own section. In the Fours, they would play the Malaysian team for a second time in the day, whilst Karen Murphy would play against South African Colleen Piketh, a player who had given her trouble in her 21-16 victory on sectional play. The Men’s Pairs would be drawn against Malta, whilst the Men’s Triples were given a very difficult draw against a New Zealand team skipped by Ali Forsyth.
Van Asch and her Fours team would play first against Malaysia and once again found themselves behind early. At 8-2 down after 5 ends, one would be forgiven for thinking the Australian team started to have some negative thoughts. But if they did, it didn’t show and they won four consecutive ends to bring it back to 8-8. The Jackaroos started to assert their dominance and the game looked over until Malaysia picked up a three on the penultimate end to cut the lead down to one. A lucky wick gave the Malaysian team the upper hand on the last end until Scott played a highly impressive resting toucher to give Australia the shot that would not be beaten and an extra end was avoided.
At the same time the Men’s Triples took on New Zealand and they silenced their critics with a clinical performance. After a first round loss against Jersey, the keyboard warriors of social media were quick to criticise the team and selectors, but the performance shown against the Kiwis put a lot of those people back in their box! An 8-0 lead after picking up a 3 on the first end and a four on the 3rd, was always going to be too much for the New Zealand team to peg back. The end result a 25-10 victory to the home team.
At the same time as the Quarter Finals, the Para Pairs were being played. The Australian team, who went into the round as the section leaders, continued to display their dominance with a 16-11 victory over New Zealand. A 10-0 lead gave a lot of confidence to the pairing but New Zealand won 4 ends in a row to reduce the margin to 10-9. The Australian tea was able to break the momentum and won 4 of the last 5 ends to claim victory.
The Men’s Pairs and Karen Murphy in the singles headed into the quarter finals as undefeated teams and would have taken great pleasure in seeing their team mates reach the semi-final. But neither discipline really got firing in front of a very boisterous Broadbeach crowd. The Men’s Pairs lead 5-0 after 2 ends and things seem to be going their way but they got ‘stuck’ on 6 shots seeing a 6-1 lead turn in to a 10-6 deficit after 9 ends. Malta continued to play well and never allowed Australia to get themselves level. In the end they were too good, 15-13 the final score and Australia are out of the Men’s Pairs.
Murphy also got off to a strong start, leading 7-1 but Piketh started to find some consistency and took the lead after 10 ends 8-7. It was a great clash with both bowlers trying to gain the upper hand but no-one able to break away. Murphy got hear head in front leading 18-14 & 19-15 but that would be the last time she scored, Piketh closing out the last three ends to win 21-19.
The Para Triples team would make it a nightmare session for the Jackaroos, also losing their tssdsdSop of the table section match 12-16. Australia battled back well from 3-11 down but could never quite capture the lead. Australia still has destiny in their own hands to make the Semi Finals and will be keen to get back to the winners circle tomorrow.
Here are the results for today and what happens for them next if they are still alive
Women’s Fours
Defeated Malaysia 14-13 & Malaysia 14-12
They now move on to the Semi Finals to play against Canada
Other Semi Final is Malta vs South Africa
Men’s Triples
Defeated Brunei 29-4 & New Zealand 25-10
They now move on to the Semi Finals to play against Canada
Other Semi Final is Norfolk Island vs Scotland
Women’s Singles
Defeated Northern Ireland 21-17, lost to South Africa 19-21
Four teams remaining are South Africa vs New Zealand & Canada vs Wales
Men’s Pairs
Defeated Canada 15-12, lost to Malta 13-15
Four teams remaining are Malta vs Scotland & Cook Islands vs Wales
Para-Sport Pairs
Defeated New Zealand 16-11
Standings
Australia 2-1 (+27)
Wales 2-1 (+13)
South Africa (-6)
New Zealand 1-2 (-4)
Scotland 1-2 (-11)
England 1-2 (-19)
Tomorrow they play Wales
Para-Sport Triples
Lost to England 12-16
Standings
England 2-1-0 (+5)
New Zealand 2-0-1 (+28)
Australia 2-0-1 (+11)
South Africa 1-1-1 (+14)
Scotland 1-0-2 (+3)
Wales 0-0-3 (-61)
Tomorrow they play Wales
The TV games for the 8th April are;
9am – Women’s Fours Australia vs Canada & Men’s Triples Norfolk Island vs Scotland
12:30 – Men’s Triples Gold Medal match & Bronze Medal match
5:30pm – Women’s Singles Gold Medal match & Bronze Medal match
Other Australia Games
9am
Para Pairs vs Wales
Men’s Triples vs Canada
5:30pm
Para Triples vs Wales
Can the Jackaroos rebound from a disappointing 4th Session today? Yes they can. These players will be keen to walk away with a medal and want the one of the gold variety. The matches will get tougher but they should have the confidence to get the job done!
Bowls Australia have again produced articles today and they can be used via the following links;
Session 1 – Session 2 – Session 3 – Session 4
By David Genford
