Jackaroos claim Overall Trans Tasman Trophy
Australia has claimed the overall honours at the Trans Tasman for a fourth consecutive year.
The green and gold stranglehold over the fiercely contested annual event continued in Burnside today, with the Australian senior team completing its assignment of retaining the Overall Trans Tasman Trophy despite dropping the final test in both the men’s and event’s events.
The Jackaroos men had already wrapped up the open men’s event a day early, after producing a whitewash of the six rubbers in the second test yesterday earned them an unusable two test lead, but managed to record victories in just one of the four matches on the New Zealand greens today.
After splitting the first two tests in the women’s event, Australia was left rueing what could have been when the third test was forced to a count back to determine the titleholder.
Australian captain Lynsey Clarke engineered the nation’s first blue-ribbon singles win in the women’s event, defeating dual Commonwealth Games gold medallist Jo Edwards after a coaching decision to alter the positional line-ups for the third test paid immediate dividends, while a second win to Claire Turley, Chloe Stewart, Anne Johns and Kelsey Cottrell forced a count back of net shots to find a winner.
New Zealand claimed the spoils by 9 shots, but despite losing today’s final test in both genders, the overall senior Trans Tasman glory was awarded to the green and gold contingent.
“The decision for me to play singles was made late last night, young Chloe has had a great debut, she is certainly a credit to the sport, but the coaches wanted to try a few different positions and combinations around for the last test,” Clarke said after winning the last singles encounter.
“I was grateful to have four bowls in these conditions, it certainly helped with trying to draw close.
“I’ve been leading in the other matches so I was already focused on trying to get my first couple of bowls close, which was important because Jo is such a quality player.
“We’ve got a really good mix of youth and experience, I’ve been around for 12 years, we’ve got Chloe who has just made her debut, and everything in between.
“Our whole team just get on really well and we have a good support crew, which helped make results go our way.”
It was a reversal of fortunes in the development side of the tournament.
After splitting the development men’s first test on both wins and net shot margin, and then producing an emphatic five wins and a draw on day two, Australia was assured of retaining their Trans Tasman Development Men’s Trophy regardless of the final test’s result.
Which proved to be particularly advantageous situation to be in, considering they too only managed to post winning results in one of their four matches today.
Despite falling short on the last test, they still walk away with some silverware, although not the coveted Overall Trans Tasman Development Trophy.
That accolade was awarded to New Zealand, who prevailed in the development women’s event after winning the opening two tests.
Since the inaugural Trans Tasman in 1979, Australia has held sway against New Zealand in the senior event, claiming the men’s title on 22 of the 37 occasions, while its women have captured 12 of 19, including a draw.
Bowls Australia would like to congratulate all participating athletes for their contribution to the 2015 Trans Tasman.
Overall results :
Development Women – NZ win 2 -1
New Zealand win Development Women’s Trophy
Development Men – Tied series 1.5 – 1.5
Aust retain Development Men’s Trophy
NZ win Overall Development Trans Tasman Trophy
Open Women – NZ win 2 – 1
New Zealand win Women’s Trophy
Open Men – Aust win 2 – 1
Aust retain Men’s Trophy
Aust win Overall Trans Tasman Trophy
Click here to view the full results.
