Taylor and Worsnop rank best
Bowls Australia’s new Player Ranking System is starting to take shape after eleven ranking events have been completed and the race to be crowned the Aero Bowls Male and Female Bowler of the Year is well and truly on. Headlined by the staging of the 2014 Australian Indoors and Golden Nugget at Tweed Heads in August, the events registered to this point in time include the Prestige Open Singles at the same venue along with the Kingscliff Beach Open Pairs, Park Beach’s Open Singles, Barry Dawson Triples at Carlingford, East Cessnock’s Hallam Open Pairs, South Tweed’s Open Pairs, the Ladies Open Classic at Moama, Tathra Beach’s BCiB Fours and Ettalong’s Prestige Fours round out the club events staged since the new rankings system was implemented on July 1. The current leaders in both the men’s and women’s categories could not be at more contrasting stages of their careers with veteran 56 year-old Kingscliff-based bowler Ian Taylor and 17-year-old St Johns Park rising star Jamie-Lee Worsnop leading the charge for the reformed title and the $3,000 winners cheque courtesy of Aero Bowls. In an all New South Wales tussle at the top of the men’s standings, Taylor, a winner of the men’s fours silver medal at the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Canada, leads reigning Australian Indoor champion David Holt by six points with Australian Jackaroo and Club Helensvale stalwart Brett Wilkie a further six points behind in third position. The all-conquering Worsnop, who has now claimed the Australian Indoor title and the Australian Open Under 18 title this year, has accrued 90 rankings points and leads the women’s assault to being named the Aero Bowls Female Bowler of the Year ahead of a star-studded list. Australian Jackaroo Natasha Scott is 18 points away in second position with New Zealand greats Jo Edwards and Val Smith filling the next two places on 66 and 64 points respectively. “The new rankings system has started off just as we had hoped with a great mix of local, national and international stars ranking high on the standings after the first two months of the system being in place,” Bowls Australia Neil Dalrymple said. “It is just fantastic to have a young star player like Jamie-Lee leading the way out in front of players such as Edwards, Smith, Cottrell, Scott and Moran while on the men’s side experience is showing the way at the top of the standings by Taylor, Holt and Wilkie but there is some super young talent chasing them down. “I encourage all clubs that stage events that fit the criteria to be approved to be a rankings event register as soon as possible because we are seeing that it is attracting a strong level of player to events right around Australia,” Dalrymple said. The new player ranking system, introduced from July 1 until the conclusion of the Australian Open annually, is a far broader ranking system than the one it replaced boasting more events and a significantly enhanced points system across the spectrum of events approved as ‘ranking events’ giving more weight to higher finishing performances at major events staged around Australia. State and Territory Associations and Clubs will have the opportunity to lodge applications to Bowls Australia for their events to be ratified as a ranking event and when approval is granted they will be categorised into one of four tiers based on certain criteria. The Australian Open, Australia’s most lucrative event, provides the highest number of points available (in each discipline) and sits alone at the top of the tiered structure in tier 1. For men’s current standings, click here & for the women’s current standings, click here For the full calendar of approved events, click here For more information on the events tier system and points structure, click here
