Brodie strikes first at Australian Under-18 Championships
The Australian Under-18 Championships kicked off on a beautiful Canberra Spring morning with all the best of the best junior bowlers from around the country starting their campaign for national glory in style.
The key match-up in round one was the duel between powerhouse states NSW and VIC; both the girls and boys didn’t disappoint putting on a show, displaying their skills on the biggest stage.
Victoria had been flying under the radar pre-tournament; however the southerners showed why they are strong contenders to take home gold this week.
In the coveted girls singles Tiffany Brodie (VIC) shot out of the gates against Junior Golden Nugget Singles Champion Molly Wilton (NSW) leading 9-0.
With revenge in sight, Brodie, the runner-up to Wilton at the recent Junior Golden Nugget, continued to apply all the pressure with a classy singles performance, going on to take the match 21-10.
Brodie claimed the Australian Open Hearing Impaired Singles and was a quarter-finalist in the open women’s singles; and here at her second Australian Under-18 Championships she is now a favourite to claim the coveted singles title.
“I’m really happy with how I played in my first game, I think I remained consistent throughout the whole match; I knew Molly was going to be tough opponent so I just kept my cool and stuck to my game plan,” said the delighted Victorian.
“If I could accomplish my goal and win a gold medal here this week it would be my greatest achievement to date; my aim was to win the singles but most importantly play well and be in contention for selection in the Australian Junior Squad.”
The NSW girl’s fours posted a strong first up victory 25-6; whilst other girl’s four’s winners were South Australia who defeated ACT, Queensland who defeated Western Australia and Tasmania who claimed a six shot victory over Northern Territory.
The NSW boy’s triples combination of Jesse Herbert, Dylan Skinner and Jordan Taylor posted a strong first round win 18-10 whilst their team mates in the pairs were chased down by Jayden Christie and Australian Under-18 representative Joshua Corless who strung the last five ends together to claim the match 16-12.
In the other girls singles matches the youngsters provided plenty of entertainment for their supporters with matches between ACT & SA and QLD & WA going down to the wire.
NSW/ACT NTC Squad member Jessica Hogan went down by one in her match against Bailey Rafferty and Australian Open Under-18 Singles Champion Sophie Young of Queensland fell over the line 21-18 in a high quality encounter with WA’s Georgia Cant.
Queensland was in crushing form across the board this morning with all four rinks registering strong first round victories against Western Australia.
Tasmania also won all four matches in round one with the biggest win for the girls coming from their singles representative Makayla Gibson who defeated Shae Smith 21-6 and their boy’s pairs of Josh Appleyard and Lachie Sims got off to a flying start with a 22 shot margin.
South Australia upset local hopes ACT getting up on all four rinks; however the local crowd is starting to pile into Tuggeranong Vikings to show some support for their young team.
The next round of matches commence at 12:15pm with players now competing in the reverse disciplines against the same states as this morning.
To find the full list of results and view the players competing click here.
