Bester the best
Broadbeach bowls coordinator Ryan Bester has won 2014 Golden Nugget at Tweed Heads, a cherished goal, hot on the heels of a Comm Games singles silver medal for Canada. Ryan Bester and Natasha Scott are 2014 Golden Nugget invitation prestige singles champions.
Bester, the bowls coordinator at Broadbeach Bowls Club, beat fellow Gold Coaster Mark Casey 25-21 in the final.
Scott, from Raymond Terrace NSW, beat former Queenslander Kelsey Cottrell in the final 25-19.
Bester is enjoying a purple patch, contesting Golden Nugget 2014 hot on the heels of his arrival back from Comm Games 2014 in Glasgow, where he won a silver medal in the men’s singles for his native Canada (ahead of Australia’s Aron Sherriff who won bronze).
The former Natasha Van Eldik is enjoying an extended honeymoon, getting married earlier this year to fellow Raymond Terrace bowler Lennon Scott, then being selected to play Comm Games 2014 for Australia (pairs and fours) and now winning her first Golden Nugget.
Queensland-based bowlers playing Golden Nugget this year were, for the men, Brett WIlkie, Ryan Bester, Mark Casey and Kelvin Kerkow, and for the women, Kristy Thatcher, Bolivia Millerick, and Gail Waitai.
The 2014 Golden Nugget ran from August 11-14 at Tweed Heads Bowls Club and was sponsored by Serene Living Australia, Opal Specialist Aged Care, Henselite and Tweed Ultima Holiday Apartments.
Each year a field of 12 men and 12 women are invited to play for Golden Nugget glory.
At the top of the men’s table this year, after playing five rounds over three days, were three Queenslanders, Brett Wilkie, Mark Casey, and Ryan Bester along with Dylan Fisher from NSW.
NSW-based players dominated at the top of the women’s table and the four going through to the finals were Anne Johns, Kelsey Cottrell, Carmen Anderson and Natasha Scott.
In the men’s semis, Casey defeated Fisher 25-23 and Bester defeated Wilkie 25-19.
In the women’s semis, Scott defeated Johns 25-11 and Cottrell defeated Anderson 25-13.
Photo: Bester with his Comm Games silver medal for Canada (Glasgow 2014) Courtesy of Getty Images and Bowls Australia.
