Treacher producing the goods at Coolum
The Australian Champion of Champions got off to a cracking start at Coolum Beach Bowls Club with the first day of three in the prestigious national competition producing plenty of thrilling games for tournament favourites and underdogs a like.
The relatively unknown quantity, Kenta Treacher from North Sydney was the surprise packet of the day progressing through day one undefeated and taking down the big scalp of WA’s Bowler of the Year Clive Adams along the way.
Treacher was dominating the rink until a late surge from Adams brought himself right back in the match; at 20-18 in Treacher’s favour, Adams appeared to be snatching the game from the jaws of defeat until a final drive from the Japanese representative gave him the one shot he required to claim the match.
Treacher represented Japan at the 2015 World Junior Championships and always loomed as a dangerous competitor in this week’s field; he now sits in second position behind defending champion Scott Thulborn.
Scott Thulborn, an inaugural member of Bowls SA’s Australian Premier League franchise the Messenger News Adelaide Endurance, was in red hot form today breezing through all three matches untouched.
Thulborn started his day with two 21-13 victories over QLD’s Harold Whitman and NT’s Mark Malogorski, however it was his final match of the day, a quick fire 21-8 win over Tasmania’s Andrew Whitmore that got Coolum Beach talking about the South Australian star as the player to beat.
Australian Jackaroos Natasha Scott and Rebecca Van Asch got off to a flying start in the women’s competition with convincing victories to start their campaign for national glory; however it was Scott who eased more comfortably into the tournament with strong wins over Victoria and Western Australia as opposed to Van Asch who did it a little tougher on day one.
Australia’s current number one ranked female bowler Natasha Scott from Raymond Terrace in NSW showed why she is Australia’s best finishing day one at the championships with two wins from as many starts; however it was the confident 21-5 win over Western Australian great Therese Hastings that asserted Scott’s ascendency on the tournament.
Tasmania’s great hope Rebecca Van Asch was tested in her second encounter against QLD’s Debbie Logan in a game that could have gone either way; the experience of Van Asch in the latter stages of the match was the difference and ensured the current World Pairs Champion remained on the front foot in the tournament.
Van Asch posted a resounding wins over Carolyn Smolski (NT), a six shot win over Renata Callisto (SA) to accompany her three shot win over QLD and now sits on top of the progressive leader board where her Australia team mate will aim to chase her down tomorrow.
Van Asch will receive a bye tomorrow morning due to the withdraw of ACT’s female representative and then the showdown everyone has been waiting for, Van Asch versus Scott will take place at 12pm with the winner potentially gripping one hand on the trophy with two games left in the championships.
Northern Territories Mark Malogorski was the talk of the town after pulling off a miraculous win against Tasmania’s Andrew Whitmore in the first round of the day to put bowls in the ‘top end’ up in lights with a rare victory for the Northern Territory at a national event.
Despite trailing Whitmore for the entire match Malogorski clinched a win from the jaws of defeat with his final bowl of the match which was delivered with pin point accuracy; Malogorski was down game however knew that a trail of the jack would win him the match and that is exactly what the Northern Territory hero did!
Unfortunately Malogorski was unable to relive the excitement of his first match going down in his next two matches.
To view all the day one results follow this link to the Bowls Australia events page.
To view the women’s ladder click here
To view the men’s ladder click …
