It’s a wrap – 2024 All Abilities State Championships
The 2024 All Abilities State Championships has been run and won in multiple categories! This year is the 10th anniversary of an event where we empower players with disabilities, that normally play in mainstream bowls events such as Pennants, to have an opportunity to play amongst their peers in Singles and Pairs. In 2015 the Inaugural event had 23 players enter, ten years later we had 53 entries, and that was with some of our regular participants missing! A big shoutout to Bowls WA President Doug Kelly who came to cut the cake and support this fabulous event.
A huge thank you to Kardinya Bowling Club who support this event every year and help from the kitchen, bar, greens, markers, wheelchair pushers, and overall help in running this fantastic tournament. Also, a special thank you to our Ausland Interpreters who come to the Opening and Closing ceremonies and help our deaf participants ‘hear’ what is being said!
Below are summaries of the Singles and Pairs competitions (including pictures of the winners in each category) with links to full independent results, followed by the overall competition spreadsheet and a link to the Facebook Photo Album.
SINGLES:
In the Physical Singles sections one and two there were clear winners to go through to the semi-finals while the other two sections battled it out. Section three had 3 players with equal points of nine so selecting the winner came down to margins with Jodie Nikolic from Yanchep just beating out Clem Nottle of Pingelly by 3 shots with a 22 to 19 margin lead. Section four had one player with 10 points, David Stephen from Morley, just getting ahead of Joe Day from Fremantle with 9 points – ironically Joe had a higher margin, but this doesn’t come into account when points come first!
Semi Final results showed Eddie Gollan bringing home the win against David Stephen from Morley, leaving Jodie Nikolic and Adam Eksanow from Nungarin fighting point for points with the win going to Adam 6 to 5. The Final game was a thriller between Eddie Gollan and Adam Eksanow – each giving as good as they got – with the final score being 14 to 10 in favour of Eddie!
(PHYSICAL SINGLES RESULTS HERE)
In the Intellectual Singles it was nice to see some fresh faces in the Semi Finals with Paul Hynd from Spearwood playing against Tye Angel from Safety Bay, and Joe Lehane from Gosnells playing against Andrew Maddy from Kardinya. With Joe and Paul winning their SF games it played out that a new Singles winner was found in Paul Hynd! Paul has been absent for a couple of years, and we can see that he has been practicing hard during that time!
(INTELLECTUAL SINGLES RESULTS HERE)
New Vision Impaired bowlers arrived at the championships, the South West Rollers, who practice out of the Mandurah Bowling Club. In the Singles the SWR were represented in the Semi Finals by Lesley Schilders and Stephen Duval, while new bowler John Weir from Perth & Tattersalls ended up against Calving Rodgers from Harvey. As per his usual game, Calvin with Director Jason, aced the Semi Finals and Final game to be crowned the Vision Impaired Singles winner for the third year in a row!
(VISION IMPAIRED SINGLES RESULTS HERE)
The Deaf Singles Semi Final winners were evenly placed amongst each section with all four sections having a two-game winner, one-game winner, and no win player. Gavin Powell (Lake Monger) won over Peter Johnston (Cockburn) to play in the Final game, while Kate Leese (Eaton) won over Greg Strachan to continue her campaign. And campaign Kate did with an 11 point win over Gavin Powell in the Final Game! A massive congratulations to Kate for being the first female winner of the State Singles in the All Abilities Championships, and congratulations also to Gavin Powell for arriving at the Finals end for the first time!
PAIRS:
Deaf Pairs showed Lake Monger players raising in the ranks with the Semi Finals showcasing both pairs teams with members from Lake Monger and Cockburn (Andrew McLean from Lake Monger & Peter Johnston from Cockburn, and Gavin Powell from Lake Monger & George/Johnny Ravlich from Cockburn) and very tight games one with two points difference and another with one point difference. In the end there are new winners on the podium with Andrew and Peter winning the Final!
Our Combination Pairs is where the vision impaired bowlers compete with and against the intellectually impaired bowler. Our Intellectual bowlers shone on the day winning three of the four Semi Final spots and Calvin Rodgers and Sharon Werndley winning the last spot. In a very close game, Calvin and Sharon beat Julie Srhoy and Paul Hynd by 3 points for Sharon’s first win in the pairs competition, and Calvin’s fourth Pairs Gold win! In 2021 he paired with Kane McSherry from Rossmoyne, in 2022 he paired with Elwyn Willis from the Valley, in 2023 Michael Pullinger from Perth & Tattersalls, and in 2024 of course he paired with Sharon Werndley from Mandurah for his 4th consecutive Pairs Gold Title!
(COMBINATION PAIRS RESULTS HERE)
In the Physical Pairs the three sections were again even mixes of two game winners, one game winners and zero game winners. The one shining point is that the eventual gold winners only got into the Semi Finals as the overall Next Best game! Ashely Armstrong from Capel paired with Neil Richardson from Mandurah – both newly classified International Bowlers with a Disability (IBD) – to bring home the Gold Medal against Wayne Allsopp (Dowerin) and Jodie Nikolic (Yanchep).
2024 All Abilities State Championships Results Summary:
