Bright start for Tasmania Tridents
The Tasmania Tridents lined up today in lawn bowls’ showpiece television event, the Bowls Premier League, which will be held at the Moama Bowling Club from Monday to Friday this week.
The Bowls Premier League is the sport’s made-for-television, showpiece event. Staged biannually, at New South Wales/Victoria border club Moama in February and Queensland’s Club Pine Rivers in November, the event has been designed to change people’s perception of the sport. The Bowls Premier League is the Twenty20 of bowls – it is fast, it is loud, it attracts the world’s best bowlers, and it appeals to non-bowlers who once upon a time may have seen bowls in a different light.
The Bowls Tasmania-owned Tridents were established in 2021, through funding contributed by the Tasmanian Government. The three-pronged Tridents moniker was chosen to represent the three regions of Tasmania and the three Tasmanian players that will carry the state’s hopes on the national stage.
The Tasmania Tridents has an all-Tasmanian line-up headlined by dual Commonwealth Games gold medallist and world champion Rebecca Van Asch, alongside the 2021 Tasmanian Fours Championship winner Taelyn Male, and the 2022 Bowls Australia Singles Champion, Rob McMullen, with one-time Australian Jackaroo Mark Strochnetter once again assuming the coaching duties.
The Tasmania Tridents started brightly as they took to the Moama greens on day one of the Bowls Premier League today.
The Tasmania Tridents played well in its opening game this afternoon against Melbourne Extreme dropping the first set 4-7 before bouncing back to win a tight second set 4-2 but losing the tiebreaker 0-2.
The Trident’s second game of the day was live streamed on Bowls Australia’s Facebook page against Adelaide Pioneers with a narrow straight sets win to the Tasmanian team. The Tridents won a close first set, winning the final three ends to win 5-3. Adelaide led 7-3 after three ends of the second set and the game looked like heading to another tiebreaker, but three shots on their powerplay in the fourth end gave the Tridents six shots and they held on to win the second set 9-8 and the game.
Another tight tussle in the third game against the Gold Coast Hawks resulted in the Tridents winning the first set 6-5 before dropping the second set 6-8 but held on in the tiebreaker 1-0 to win its second game of the day, finishing in third place on the ladder after Day One.
Ladder after Day One:
- Sydney Lions 6 points
- Melbourne Extreme 6 points
- Tasmania Tridents 6 points
- Moreton Bay Pirates 6 points
- Melbourne Pulse 6 points
- Tweed Head Ospreys 6 points
- Gold Coast Hawks 3 points
- Adelaide Pioneers 3 points
- Moama Steamers 3 points
- Perth Suns 0 points.
The event will be shown live on Fox Sports, Kayo and Sky Sport NZ from 4pm-10pm AEST each night from Tuesday to Friday, with additional live-streaming through the Bowls Australia Facebook page during the daytime rounds.
