Qld kick off Aus Sides campaign
Mixed results for Queensland in Rnd 1 of the Australian Sides in Burnie Tasmania. Queensland kicked off their Australian Sides campaign with some mixed results over home side, Tasmania, at South Burnie Bowls Club this morning.
While the men opened their account with an impressive come-from-behind win, 63-49, the women were pipped at the post in a nail-biting round one clash, 61-63.
“Overall I’m happy with the performance this morning,” state coach Bill Cornehls said after the match.
“It’s disappointing for the girls, but it was always going to be tough playing the home side first up, especially when playing on difficult greens.
“The greens are slow, and the one we played on this morning is probably the slowest of all, it’s completely different to what we’re used to in Queensland.”
Tasmania got the best of the early ends, as Queensland battled to overcome the conditions.But by mid-way through the match, Queensland were back on track and actually leading in both games.
“Tasmania were going pretty good at the start, but we just kept plugging away and eventually we caught them,” Cornehls said.
But while Queensland’s men continued to extend their lead, the women were constantly pegged back by a determined Tassie side, with the match going right down to the final bowl.With just two ends to go the match was all tied up at 61-61.
Lynsey Clarke’s rink of Kristy Thatcher, Bolivia Millerick and Charlie Harkness had come up with the goods, clocking up a vital 10-shot win, 27-17.
Unfortunately Tassie had control of the other two rinks, with skips Louise Witton and Pam Rowe fighting an uphill battle.
“Louise played a beautiful last bowl on her last end to draw shot, ” Cornehls said.
“The Tassie skip tried to draw shot with her last bowl and she actually missed, but in the process she caught the outside of another bowl and it rolled in to get the shot.
“It was just bad luck, there was nothing our girls could do about it.”
It was a similar story on the final rink, where Pam Rowe was holding, only to see her rival steal shot on the last bowl of the match.
Queensland’s men had no such problems, clocking up a comfortable 14-shot victory.
“A few of the guys had been talking the team up a bit, saying we’re going to win it this year, so it was good that they got out there and backed it up,” Cornehls said.
“If we can get another win over Northern Territory this afternoon, it’ll be a good confidence booster going into our match with Victoria tomorrow morning.”
In other games, South Australia took surprise wins over powerhouse side NSW, in the both men’s (59-52) and women’s (52-49) events.WA overcame ACT 62-51 (men) and 67-45 (women), while Victoria walloped NT 96-35 (men) and 79-54 (women).
Click here to see Queensland team
Click here for full results
