Men’s pairs trip up while triples pair off
A Commonwealth Games semi-final awaits Wayne Ruediger, Nathan Rice and Matthew Flapper, otherwise known as the Aussie men’s triples team, after progressing to the second last encounter via a tight 16-13 quarter-final victory against Jersey. Meanwhile, the 2014 Games campaign for pairs team mate Brett Wilkie and Aron Sherriff is over after a form turnaround from their pool matches to their quarter-final ended their tournament as they fell 12-19 to Namibia. The triples team will be aiming to join the vision-impaired mixed pairs team as the only medallists from the first five disciplines played at the Games after the mixed pairs claimed the bronze medal early Saturday afternoon in Scotland. In a match that was tight from start to finish, the Australian’s were a touch slow out of the blocks trailing 1-3 after 3 but they then found form to win the next two ends to lead 5-3 and their looked ominous as they seemed to find their pool section form as they never surrendered the lead again. In windy and wet conditions at the Kelvingrove Lawn Bowls Centre, the Aussies found a five-shot lead on two occasions in the back half of the match when they led 12-7 after 11 and 16-11 after 16 before Jersey rallied and claimed shots on the final two ends but the door had closed by Ruediger, Rice and Flapper much earlier. “Playing in the rain is almost foreign to us, something we find very difficult,” Assistant coach Robbie Dobbins said. “They did well though, all three played good bowls today and all contributed to a good team effort. “I thought they played really sensibly and there were no silly shots. The Aussie men’s triples will play South Africa in the semi-final after they defeated New Zealand in the quarter-final. “The semi-final will be like any other match at this level and this stage of the tournament, they’re all tough,” a cautious Dobbins added. While the excitement of the triples semi-final berth was celebrated amongst the Jackaroos, disappointment for their male counterparts in the pairs after Wilkie and Sherriff stumbled at the wrong time in their mission to claim a Commonwealth Games medal. Having been in scintillating form throughout their three pool matches defeating Jersey (20-7), Norfolk Island (14-10), Cook Islands (25-11) and Namibia (25-10) in their final pool match, the boys went into their quarter-final, ironically against Namibia again for the second time in the one day, as favourites. In analysing the quarter-final result where Australia lost 12-19 and never had the game on their terms, National coach Steve Glasson’s immediate post-game response was a philosophical “it was just one of those games”. “The boys are disappointed and we’re disappointed for them. They had a confident win this morning but just a different tale this afternoon,” Glasson said. “There’s been some interesting results for all countries this afternoon, maybe the change in conditions has taken its toll on a few teams.” Wilkie and Sherriff were shell-shocked in their second encounter with Namibia within hours as the African nation shot to a 15-shot lead by the eighth end before Wilkie and Sherriff gave the scorer any work to do. From there it was ‘backs against the wall’ stuff and the resilient and proud Jackaroos outscored Namibia nine shots to one over the next five ends but the damage was done early and a semi-final berth was dashed. Australia’s hopes now rest with the men’s triples team who face South Africa in a semi-final showdown early on Sunday morning local time at 8.45am (5.45pm AEST). Caption: Grange Bowling Club’s Wayne Ruediger in quarter-final
