State Championships – Women’s and Men’s Singles Champions Crowned
Club Kawana Claim Men’s & Women’s Singles Champs
By Vanessa Bacon-Hall
After almost three weeks of play, the final day of matches in the Queensland State Championships saw the men’s and women’s singles contested at Coolum Beach Bowls Club with both gold medals going to players from Club Kawana.
The men’s gold medal match between Kurt Brown and Brendan Wilson was as good as it gets in competitive bowls. With the goal of being first to 25 shots, it could’ve been anyone’s game. Kurt started off stronger and kept a consistent 2-shot lead, until Brendan matched him at 6-6 with some ricochet until both men were 8-8 on the leaderboard. Brendan pushed through with a 3-shot end giving him 11 shots, with Kurt remaining on 8. Kurt responded with 2 shots, edging closer to Brendan’s now 12 and keeping spectators unsure as to who was going to claim the gold.
Brendan consistently replied with some stellar shots pushing him to a 5-shot lead over Kurt 15-10. Brendan soon started maintaining a lead of 4 shots, making Kurt work hard while Brendan slowly edged up to keep the game was in his favour.
When Brendan had a substantial lead of 22-13, Kurt in his own words “dug deep” and came back to produce some winning shots, keeping his nerve and increasing his lead by 2 shots over each of the next three ends to 22-19.
Kurt said he was starting to get a bit worried 22 to 13 down but decided to soldier on. “The biggest problem I was having was that I just needed to wake up to myself,” he said.
Kurt’s “digging deep” worked as in the last end, Brendan was holding 3 when Kurt’s played the last bowl of the match spectacularly and got within millimetres of the jack, claiming the gold medal 25-24.
Kurt also explained that Club Kawana and their support was also part of the winning formula.
“It’s probably the biggest club on the coast and they like putting money back into bowls. My biggest thank you is to Club Kawana for all of their support.”
The Men’s Bronze saw Isaac Maughan defeat John Newell 25/22.
The Women’s Gold Medal match was another brilliant game which saw Katelyn Inch defeat Heather Hodgson 25/22 after 29 ends. In a similar format to the men’s, Heather lead for the entire game right up until the 24th end when Katelyn progressed on the lead and eventually won the match.
Making it a hat trick, Katelyn was thankful for her now three-time Gold in the Women’s Singles.
“I didn’t have any expectations coming into this as I’ve had a pretty busy year so far with international bowls and I really am stoked to have made my way here.
“It was a tough battle – Heather is a great player, but I just hung in there.
“It was such a tough game and Heather was always in front and it took me a really long time to get there.”
The women’s Bronze Medal was won by Wendy Wilson who defeated Chloe Stewart 25/22.
At the end of the Queensland State Championships Bowls Queensland extends major thanks to our host Club and sponsor Coolum Beach Bowls Club as well as our other major sponsors Henselite and Sunshine Coast Regional Council and thanks to Mayor Mark Jamieson for presenting the medals today along with BQ President Peter Williamson and Sunshine Coast District President Graham Tanis.
These events would not be possible without the countless hours put in by our volunteers – a huge thank you to all of them as well as the greens staff at all the clubs and in particular Dipper and his team at Coolum.
Thank you also to the live streaming team from Gold Coast/Tweed Bowls for their stellar coverage and thank you to all who took part in the competition over the past three weeks.
Thank you to all host clubs and event sponsors for their support of the State Championships Carnival. Thank you to Bowls QLD Committee’s/staff and club volunteers/staff for their contribution to the successful running of this event.
WOMEN’S Medal Round Results
Gold – Katelyn Inch 25 def Heather Hodgson 22
Bronze – Wendy Wilson 25 def Chloe Stewart 22
MEN’S Medal Round Results
Gold – Kurt Brown 25 def Brendan Wilson 24
Bronze – Isaac Maughan 25 def John Newell 22
WOMEN’S Semi Finals Results
Katelyn Inch 25 def Wendy Wilson 7
Heather Hodgson 25 def Chloe Stewart 15
MEN’S Semi Final Results
Kurt Brown 25 def John Newell 18
Brendan Wilson 25 def Isaac Maughan 9
MEN’S Quarter Finals Results
Kurt Brown 21 def Peter Leon 7
John Newell 21 def Dean Drummond 14
Isaac Maughan 21 def Jason Heath 19
Brendan Wilson 21 def Scott DeJongh-Fitzpatrick 6
More info and full results: https://www.bowlsqld.org/events/state-championships/
Thank you to sponsors Henselite, Sunshine Coast Council and Coolum Beach Bowls Club.
