State Fours Results
The Fours champions have been crowned and it was two very different stories in both competitions.
In the Women’s event, there were two upsets in the Semi Finals with the highly fancied rinks skipped by State Skips in Lyn Triffitt & Candice Hodgetts, both going down to Maxine Monson and Christine Dowl respectively. Monson won by 5 shots whilst Dowl survived a final measure to win by one, very close to being forced into a deciding end. Both teams deserved to be in the final and had a golden opportunity to be crowned state champions.
The Final was almost over before it began. Monson was able to pick up a 7 on the first end and they never looked back, controlling the game and maintain a healthy lead for the rest of the game, winning 26-16. Monson was joined by Sophie Fletcher, Madge Strochnetter and Judy Furr and it is only Fletcher that has previously won a State title. After the match Monson was very happy with the win, “When we got a 7 on the first end it set us up for the rest of the game. It really was a team effort and we’re pretty chuffed with the win. The champers tastes good!”
The Men played three games today to get to their champion but at the end of the day, no-one could get close to Lee Schraner’s team. The quarter finals saw some one-sided games with Taelyn Male defeating Pat Hoffman 21-2, Scott Summers defeating Peter Bannister 15-4, Lee Schraner defeating Rick Ormerod 18-8 and in the closest match it was Daniel Baker over Tim Douce 19-15.
The Semi Finals were even more one-sided than the quarter Finals. Both Schraner & Baker got off to strong starts over Summers & Male respectively and neither game saw all 15 ends played with Schraner winning 20-3 & Baker winning 19-4.
The Final had the potential to be a close one, especially if Baker could take an early lead, but it wasn’t to be. Schraner started to open a gap and was able to control the game. Baker needed 11 shots in the last two ends and despite picking up a 5 on the second last end, the ask was too much and Schraner was crowned champion once again. The end score was 20-13. Whilst Schraner & his third Rob McMullen is no stranger to winning state titles this was the first title for their front end, Brad Johns & Josh Appleyard. Johns had started his bowling career with McMullen at the Franklin Bowls Club, “Mate, it feels awesome! Especially to win with my best mate (McMullen).” Appleyard was also over the moon, “The feeling is unreal! To win a title with 3 top blokes in tricky conditions and play at them standards was brilliant!” Schraner was a little more relieved than elated but was very pleased for his teammates, especially his Pairs partner Appleyard, “The thrill was seeing Josh and Brad win their first title. Now Josh doesn’t have to listen to his dad gloating about having one when he doesn’t”.
The Championships now move on to the Pairs post sectional play whilst also seeing the start of the Bowlers with a Disability events and the Junior events too.
By David Genford
