Tiff and Taleah take Pairs Gold
Tiffany Murray and Taleah Putney have claimed the girls under-18 pairs title at the 2014 Junior State Championships. Tiffany Murray and Taleah Putney are Queensland champions, following a hard-fought win at the 2014 Junior State Championships on the Gold Coast earlier today.
The talented twosome struck a blow for country girls with their victory over coast stars April Wilson (Helensvale) and Connie-Leigh Rixon (Kawana) in the final of the Under-18 Pairs at Broadbeach Bowls Club.
“It’s nice to get the country girls noticed,” Miriam Vale girl, Murray, said after the match.
“Because we don’t live in the big city, we don’t get to go to the big competitions and play against the top players, so it’s nice to get the win.”
“Yeah, when you live so far away it’s harder to get noticed,” Putney agreed…not that it seems to have hurt her bowling career, with the 15-year-old Gayndah champ recently named in Australia’s junior squad.
The duo overcame a slow start in the title match, going from 2-5 down after four ends, to 12-6 up after nine.
But just when they looked unstoppable, a lapse in concentration let Rixon and Wilson right back into the match.
“I guess we dropped the pot a bit,” said Murray. “Our concentration went down because we were quite a bit in front, then they got a couple of threes and it was 12-all.”
The sides were neck-and-neck after that, with just one shot the difference heading into the second last end.
“We were very nervous near the end, we were actually shaking,” Murray said.
“It was really close and after being in front, we were really worried we were going to lose.”
But just when the coast girls looked ready to pounce, disaster struck, with Rixon and Wilson dropping four to slip five behind heading into the last end.
“Dropping that four so close to the end really hurt us,” said Rixon.
“But we still gave ourselves a good chance to win it,” added Wilson, who is also a member of Australia’s junior squad.
“On the last end we were holding one, but we had four thirds.
“Unfortunately Taleah came through the head and took the jack back. After that we needed to kill the end, but we couldn’t do it.”
Instead the pair had to settle for silver, going down 19-15.
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