South Australia’s 2022 Nationals success

by Marketing on October 21, 2022

The Nationals have wrapped up for 2022 with a strong week of representation from our South Australian team at Broadbeach Bowls Club in Queensland.

Under 18s

The Under 18s were bursting to get out of the blocks after no competition since 2020. The thrill of playing in the nationals competition saw the girls pairs doing just that, knocking over NSW in their first game by a considerable 23-11. Our teams finished strong and saw the girls’ pairs playing off for Gold and the boys’ singles playing off for Bronze. In some of the worst weather for the week, they pushed through the rain collecting silver and bronze.

Mutli-Disability

The Mutli-Disability team also got in on the action with their events starting with the juniors at Club Mermaid. For the first time this side represented South Australia and Bowls SA, with the competition run by Bowls Australia.

We collected a mixed bag of results however we were able to bag the below medals;

B5/6 Pairs – Bronze
Lead – Darryl Willson
Skip – Andrew Reed
B7/8 Pairs – Bronze
Lead – Mike Emberton
Skip – Chris Flavel

Over 60s

With the U18s handed their medals, the Over 60s then had their opportunity to step onto the national stage with Bowls Australia running this event for the first time. Our Ladies got off to a great start by knocking over Tasmania under lights in their bid at the Betty Collins OAM Trophy. The ladies lost just a couple of very close games, which saw them finish third, just 2 wins short of second place. The men fought hard, earning 5 wins and 1 loss going into their final game against Victoria who also sat with 5 wins and 1 loss, meaning the winners of the game would claim the John Debbie AM Trophy. The men saw themselves within just a handful of shots with 5 ends to play, however they dropped a couple ends back-to-back, losing by 9 shots in the end to finish second with a silver medal.

Open

The Open Men and Women arrived on the Gold Coast a couple days prior to their first game to play Gold Coast Tweed District and ACT in warm-up matches which allowed the teams to get the ball rolling slowly and build important momentum for day one. As always, they started day one with a test against Western Australia, in the midst of a rain delay and some cooler weather. The women finished with two wins and some very close losses which could have changed their campaign. The Men took a loss to Queensland in round one but rallied and came out firing in game two, knocking over Victoria. The Men were looking to add to our two Alley Shields but fell two wins short of first place and a mere 2.5 points short of second to finish in third place.

That completed our positive South Australian representative sides campaigns for the 2022 year.