Honours just keep rolling on for Stewart
Bowls Australia has recognised the phenomenal feats of Kyneton sharp-shooter Chloe Stewart, naming her as a finalist in its 2013 Under-18 Female Bowler of the Year award, as Raylee Tucherman reports for the Bendigo Advertiser. The talented teenager has been short-listed for the prestigious honour alongside her former Australian junior squad team-mate Natasha Jones, from Bribie Island in Queensland. Stewart, who moves into the senior lawn bowls ranks this year, showed her class on the greens throughout the past 12 months. She won the under-18 girls singles title at the Australian Open last February, after making it through to the quarter finals in the main draw. As captain of the Victorian girls’ team at the national under-18 championships in Perth in September, she led by example to claim silver medals in both the singles and pairs events. Stewart was runner-up at the 2013 Junior Golden Nugget Invitational Singles tournament at Tweed Heads in August and was named player of the series when Victoria’s open women’s team won Test matches 2-1 against Western Australia. She also had a remarkable season in state competitions, taking out the Victorian singles title at both junior and senior level. Jones, meanwhile, was the first Queensland bowler to win all four junior state titles (singles, pairs, triples and fours) in the same year. The winner will be announced at Bowls Australia’s awards night in Burnie, Tasmania, on March 29. Stewart will be in action in Melbourne next week, as she aims to qualify for the 2014 Australian Open women’s draw in the singles and pairs. The Last Chance Qualifying event runs from Tuesday through to Friday and the Open – with prizemoney totalling $140,000 – is at the Darebin International Sports Centre from February 16-20.