So close, but no medals for Tasmania

by admin on December 9, 2018

Both our Men’s & Women’s pairings made the bronze medal matchups in their respective events but couldn’t get over the line and finished 4th.

Amelia Bruggy & Lyn Triffitt got off to a great start, winning their first match in front of the live streaming against Victoria 17-10. Both women played very well and impressed the onlooking Club Sapphire crowd. They then had the bye and were able to witness the Victorian team have a convincing win against the NT team skipped by Shenayde Heldt 24-9. This meant that the Tasmanian combination needed a draw or a win against the NT team to advance to the Gold Medal match and only needed to avoid a heavy defeat to make the bronze medal game. Our girls weren’t able to reproduce the form they had in the first game, going down 9-14, seeing Victoria through to the Gold Medal match and Tasmania to play Queensland in the bronze medal match.

Our Men’s combination of Ricky & Luke Richardson (Father & Son), also had to play Victoria first up and found themselves in a very tight battle. 2-2 after 4 ends showed how tight it was and this continued until the last few ends when the Victorian team kicked away to win by 5 shots 13-8. It didn’t get any easier with the NSW pairing from Warilla as the second match up. But the boys were not intimidated and bowled very well to take the victory 18-13. This meant that a gold medal match was unlikely (They needed NSW to win by 5 and hope they won the count back!) but they could cheer on the Vics or a close NSW win to see them play for a medal. The Victorian team were too strong, setting up another Tasmanian shot at a medal, this time vs SA. Victoria would play Queensland in the Final.

The Men’s playoff didn’t go to plan. The South Australian team skipped by Josh Studham proved to be too strong, running away winners 23-11. In the Women’s playoff, the Qld team skipped by Chloe Stewart held the upper hand going into the last few ends. Amelia & Lyn needed to pick up a four on the last end to force an extra end but could only manage to make a 3 to only lose the play off by 1.

In the Gold Medal matches, the NSW pairing of Anne Johns & Kelsey Cottrell were too strong for their Victorian opponents, not needing to play the last two ends due to their dominant 25-7 win.

The Men’s final saw Tasmanian born Jade Groenewege team up with Sean Baker to defeat the Victorian team 15-9. We have to claim a Tasmanian connection whenever we can!

Tomorrow sees the Fours take to the green. The preview can be found here – https://bowlstasmania.com.au/News/2018-tasmanian-senior-team/australian-championships-preview

Unfortunately we don’t have a team in the Men’s section, so we might have to cheer on ex-Tasmanian player Graeme Kitto who will play in the NT team. Best of luck to our Women’s team!

By David Genford