WA in hostile territory

by admin on March 31, 2016

Wrap of the opening day at the Australian Sides Series The Western Australian state team has made a disappointing start to the 2016 side series at Queanbeyan on Thursday, losing three of their first four games. The only win came courtesy of the women’s side’s victory over the hosting ACT side in the afternoon session.  The win keeps the ladies in the hunt for a medal while the men have a long road back with tough games to come against Queensland and Victoria in particular.
Prior to the opening match the new selected men’s players Corey Bessant, Bill Brandsma, Lewis Grigg and Matthew Mitchell were presented with their WA representative caps. A special presentation was made by Head Selector Graeme Wishart, also a past player for WA who awarded Pieter Harris a certificate of achievement playing his 200th game for WA in this match. Harris joins a select group of WA Men to have achieved that honour, the list is a who’s who of bowls with Dennis Katunarich, John Rainoldi, Geoff Oakley, Steve Srhoy, Geoff Ellis, Robbie Ball and Graeme Wishart himself as the other 200 games players for WA. Daniel Patterson also played his 50th game for WA in this match.
The men’s struggles against New South Wales continued this morning, following on from their practice match victory on Wednesday. The Sandgropers were unable to win on any rink with the closest effort a one shot loss by Pieter Harris to Aaron Sherriff. The loss followed another defeat at the hands of New South Wales on Wednesday. The WA side was competitive for a third of the match but the Blues built up their lead and cruised to a comfortable twenty shot victory.
The women faired little better in the morning session with a disappointing performance. A one shot win over Natasha Scott was the only positive in a 33 shot loss. The margin was due largely to the dominance of decorated Jackaroo Karen Murphy and her side whose 21 shot win allowed the Blues to control the contest throughout.
Men
WA defeated by NSW 44-64
Harris defeated by Sherriff 16-17
Edmonds defeated by Turley 15-26
Ellul defeated by Ferguson 13-21

Women
WA defeated by NSW 43-76
Abe defeated by Cottrell 12-25
Morss defeated by Murphy 12-33
Krstic defeated Scott 19-18
The pain continued for the WA men’s side against the host state with an upset loss. Again strong in the first 21 ends the West held a slim lead were not behind on any rink. All rinks faltered and with fifteen ends to play WA faced a slight deficit. New skip Scott Edmonds kicked on to win by eleven shots, but was not followed as the other two rinks continued to drift back. In the end Edmonds win was not enough and WA went down by nine, seriously denting their medal hopes.
The women bounced back strongly with a hard fought win against the ACT. Things didn’t look good with the side seemingly picking up were they left off in the previous game. An upset looked on the cards when the hosts held a 47-40 lead but from there the WA girls rallied. The West ran over the top of the ACT girls and picked a tough five shot win in a gritty display, keeping their medal hopes alive with some key games to come.
Men
WA defeated by ACT 60-68
Harris defeated by Chesher 17-23
Edmonds defeated Ashlin 27-16
Ellul defeated by Howie 16-29

Women
WA defeated ACT 58-53
Abe defeated by Harmer 18-19
Morss defeated Bacchetto 23-18
Krstic defeated Mengel 17-16 
WA head into day two of the tournament facing critical encounters with perennial challenges Queensland and last years men’s runner up South Australia.

Bowls WA will provide rink scores and updates following each game on our Facebook Page click here
For further details on this competition visit the Bowls Australia Website events page click here
Australian Sides Championships Fixtures and Results click here