Two new names on the honour roll
The 2017 Australian Indoor proved to be a tough comp for the former champions. (Pictured left: Winners of the prestigious 2017 Australian Indoor Championships Rebecca Van Asch (TAS) and NSW’s David Ferguson.)
The 2017 Australian Indoor Championships (Sept 28-31) proved to be a tough comp to crack, the competition’s favourites were left by the wayside as Tasmania’s Rebecca Van Asch and NSW’s David Ferguson pulled off some big wins bag themselves their first titles.
It seemed as if ‘king Henry’ would be walking away with his fourth AI title (after wins in 2011, 2015 and 2016) but Ferguson had other ideas and achieved the seemingly impossible, disposing of Henry in the men’s final.
Despite dropping the first set, 6-11, Ferguson rallied to claim the next set, 8-6, as well as the opening shot of the tie-break, before putting the game out of contention with a further 3 shots on the next, eventually walking away with the silverware 4-2.
Not to be outdone Van Asch sealed her first set 9-4 against Canadian international representative Kelly McKerihen, who forged a come-from-behind 7-5 second set win.
A tense tie-break ensued after both players won an end each to make sure the coveted title came down to one final end, the win secured Van Asch her first coveted AI title and placed in the history books as the first Tasmanian to win the title.
Queensland players were also able to put in a good showing at the prestigious event with outstanding performances from Kawana’s Di Viterale, South Tweed’s Stephen Halmai, Lynsey Clarke (Helensvale) and Kristy Thatcher (Tweed Heads).
It was never going to be easy going up against six-time winner Karen Murphy but Viterale was able to give her a good run for her money and go down fighting, the Sunny Coast bowler was able to deal the first blow taking the set one 6-5.
Murphy retorted and took the second set 2-12 to throw the game into a tiebreaker, despite Di’s best efforts Murphy was able to come up trumps and knock her out of the competition after a 1-2 win.
Fellow Queenslander Kristy Thatcher was able to progress through to round two after defeating Tasmanian Kim Saunders 8-5 and then 9-4 to set her up against 2017 Australian Open Fours Champion Tiffany Brodie who put a stop to Thatcher’s run after winning 3-11 and drawing in the second set at 6-6.
Queen of the green Lynsey Clarke followed a similar trajectory after beating NSW’s Lisa Buchanan in round one but was stopped by Victoria’s Sara Rodger after the game was settled by a narrow tiebreaker which Rodger was able to seize with a narrow 2-3 victory.
Queensland had eight players in total vying for a title win in the competition, Queensland’s other entries were Peter Thompson (Paradise Point), Ian Law (Burleigh Heads), Linda Morish (Pine Rivers) Alan Law (Mudgereeba) and Bargara’s Adele Pershouse.
To see the full results and draw click here.