Business as usual for Aussie men and mixed pairs to play for bronze
With the sun setting on the Kelvingrove Lawn Bowls Centre after day two of competition, Australia sit atop the standings in the respective sections of the men’s pairs and men’s triples competition after another two wins each to close out another day undefeated. The women’s fours combination also won their solitary match on day two in the fourth round against Cook Islands while Kelsey Cottrell faces a mammoth task to progress to the semi-final stage after a convincing loss to Wales’ Caroline Taylor. The Australian vision-impaired mixed pairs combination of Joy Forster and Tony Scott with their directors Bruce Jones and Peter Scott respectively advanced to a semi-final encounter against the host nation Scotland but unfortunately fell just short of progressing to the gold medal playoff after going down 14-18. Cottrell, 24 has experienced fluctuating fortunes at the XX Commonwealth Games so far winning only two of her four encounters and her fifth and final sectional match against hometown hero Caroline Brown stands as a must win. Brown is one of the hot gold medal favourites alongside England’s Natalie Melmore and Taylor in the women’s singles and has been in outstanding form on her national greens having progressed this far undefeated and only conceded 10 or more shots to her opponents on one occasion. Cottrell had her work cut out for her in her match against Taylor with assistant coach Kelvin Kerkow saying that it was a tough day at the office. “The final end told the tale with Taylor having three bowls within seven or eight inches indicating just how well she played,” Kerkow said. When ends changed over throughout the match, Cottrell faced double-figure deficits of ten or more shots on six occasions until the eventual final margin of ten shots after 21 ends. Assistant coach Robbie Dobbins was also rink side for Cottrell’s encounter and he too heaped praise on the Australian’s opponent. “The Welsh girl was simply too good today, there isn’t a player in the world who would have beaten her today. “She could definitely go all the way,” Dobbins said Cottrell sits in third position in her section behind Brown and Taylor and now needs other results, and mathematics, to work in her favour. Our five Australian men are enjoying an undefeated run so far through the tournament with Brett Wilkie and Aron Sherriff in the men’s pairs and Wayne Ruediger, Nathan Rice and Matt Flapper in the triples winning their round four matches impressively. The triples combination defeated England’s John McGuinness, Stuart Airey and Jamie Chestney 17-15 after leading 8-0 after six and 13-5 after 11 before a resurgent England strung a series of solid ends together to challenge and square it up 15-15 with one end to play. Wilkie and Sherriff slowly but surely took care of Jersey in their penultimate sectional match winning 20-7 against Malcolm de Sousa and Thomas Greechan over the 18 ends but banking one and two shots on their winning ends for the majority of the match. The boys enjoyed going about their business away from the spotlight as the famous Scottish duo Alex Marshall and Paul Foster were doing battle on an adjacent rink and attracted the local crowd in volumes. “It was a polished performance from the boys today, no fuss and very business-like,” National coach Steve Glasson said. “They’re both seasoned campaigners so they’re doing everything they need to at this stage of the tournament. “They know they can’t win it during the pool matches so really we’ll just be happy to progress (to post sectional play) and then set our sights from there,” Glasson added. Both men’s disciplines head their respective sectional standings. The women’s fours team of Carla Odgers, Natasha Scott, Lynsey Clarke and Karen Murphy were impressive in their only match on day two winning 19-6 against Mata Vaile, Matangaro Tupuna, Antonina Browne and Linda Vaile from Cook Islands. Australia sit second on their standings table, but only on shot differential as a bottle neck has …
