Sheridans Men’s Country Week Preview
Who will be our next Country Week Champions? The Sheridans for Badges Men’s Country Week Championships will see over 1000 players from 116 Country clubs descend on 19 metropolitan venues over a week of highly competitive bowls Friday March 2nd to Friday March 9th. Players from as far away as Dampier to the north, Kalgoorlie in the East and Condingup in the south show just how far and wide players will travel to compete in this event.
Many of the bowlers will arrive early playing in warm up carnivals and coming along to watch the traditional Country Week curtain raiser which is the State Squad V Country All Stars hosted at Osborne Park Bowling Club from 6pm on Thursday March 1st. This event is always an important one and the pinnacle of country representation with six rinks of fours selected to play. This year the selectors have put a new team out on the field with a dozen fresh faces in the country line-up. However the team has plenty of experience with former state representatives Mark Simpson (Dudley Park) and John Goddard (Hopetoun) included in the line-up. It is an equally important event for several state squad members as it is the last chance to impress state selectors before the team is chosen in early March for the Australian Championships in Darwin held May 3-6.
To see the full teams in the Country All Stars v State Squad match click here
Singles is the first event players will tackle with sectional play to begin on Friday March 2nd. Last years champion Kaleb Walding now at Dampier was the youngest ever winner of the event at just 16 years of age. He will be looking to be the first player since Hall of Famer Keith Doncon from Wickepin in 1997-99 to win back to back titles. Kaleb commences his title defence at Cambridge Bowling Club and will play Jim Robertson (Middleton Beach) who will be a tough opponent having won the title in 2010 and Brian Walter (Wonthella). Others to watch in the singles are last years runner-up Mark Simpson who kicks off his campaign at Nollamara, 2015 singles winner Matthew France (Merredin) at Melville, 2016 champion Michael Ford (Geraldton) at Gosnells and former metro and state representative John Goddard who faces a tough return to country week up against Phil Manning (Moora) and Louie Berteaux (Shackleton) who are well known country players.
The Pairs will see 468 teams take to the greens on Saturday 3rd March with defending champions Vic Wellstead and Kevin Heberle (Gnowangerup) kicking off their campaign at Dalkeith Nedlands Bowling Club. Other strong combinations to watch for in this event include Busselton’s Graeme Evans and Wayne Coyle at Bassendean, father and son duo Aaron Smith and Hayden Smith (York) at Fremantle and Shane Giudice-Nairn and Michael Ford (Geraldton) at Hilton Park. This event however is wide open and it wouldn’t surprise to see four completely different pairs contesting the finals such is the closeness and depth of the field.
Finally the fours sectional play will begin on Sunday 4th March and conclude on Monday 5th March. A tough six team round robin means only the strongest sides get through a tough opening two days play. Last years champions from Gnowangerup skippered by Arthur Crabbe are back and start their title defence at Nollamara playing teams from Port Bouvard, York, Denison, Manjimup and Capel. Some other strong teams that will challenge them this year could be Dave Cliff’s Brookton team playing at Bassendean, Matt Pennington with his Busselton team at Manning, former singles champion Brad King will skipper his Geraldton team at Osborne Park and Shaun Donohoe’s Gingin team playing at Doubleview is another to watch out for.
Once sectional play has been completed the finalists will continue at multiple venues on Tuesday 6th March before they all head to Doubleview from Wednesday 6th March until the champions are crowned on Friday 9th March at that venue.
The finals on Friday May 9th at Doubleview will be live streamed through the Bowls WA Facebook page.
Click here for the Sheridans Men’s Country Week Championships Draw and Results
