Australian Sides Series wrap
Darwin and Nightcliff NT, May 2-5 Western Australia has completed a tough Australian Sides series behind New South Wales and Victoria who were crowned the champions in the Women’s Marj Morris Trophy and Men’s Alley Shield competitions respectively.
The event which was held in the Northern Territory at Darwin and Nightcliff Bowling Clubs with the eight Australian sides and territories competing in a round robin event with three rinks of fours players in Men’s and Women’s competition.
WA started their campaign Wednesday afternoon against Tasmania with the Women’s team regarding a narrow two shot win whilst the Men found a very much strong Tassie Men’s team far too good going down by 27.
Thursday saw WA play Victoria in the morning game and half way through it was a very tight contest however Victoria slowly got the upper hand to record 12 shot win in the Women’s game and a 7 shot win in the Men’s. It did see new skip Cody Packer win his first game for WA – that rink of Dave Rankin, Anthony Williams and Kyle McIlroy ultimately the best performed for WA winning five games. In the afternoon WA played well to record good win’s over the hosts NT. The women won by 16 and the Men had a big 28 shot victory.
Friday saw WA keep the good momentum going with another big win against ACT. Kristina Krstic’s rink played very well to record a 17 shot rink win which saw WA to victory by 13 overall. The Men were in great form winning well on two rinks with Tom Mitchell having a 17 shot victory and John Slavich winning by 12 in a bumper 25 shot victory.
The Friday afternoon saw perhaps the biggest disappointment for the series as WA struggled to match the might of NSW. The women’s team completely over powered going down by 56 shots whilst the Men put in a good contest on two rinks but went down heavily against Commonwealth Games Gold Medallist Aaron Wilson by 20 shots on the other for an overall 22 shot loss.
The final day of the competition saw WA play Queensland in what turned out to be a great match. WA had their chances to win in both contests but came away with narrow losses, six for the Women and two for the Men. The Men losing in heart breaking fashion having a three shot lead with just one end to play however a brilliant shot by Queensland skip Brett Wilkie saw a WA bowl removed and five shots lost.
WA however fought out the competition strongly with a good win against South Australia winning on all six rinks. The women recorded a big 30 shot victory whilst the Men went even better with a 42 shot win. WA officially finished fifth in the Women’s competition with 4 wins and 3 losses and sixth in the Men’s with 3 wins and 4 losses.
WA players reaching a milestone were – Anthony Williams (Manning) WA debut, Tom Mitchell (Manning) 100 games, Noelene Abe (Corrigin) and John Slavich (Stirling) 150 games.
Kristina Krstic (Manning) and Anthony Williams (Manning) were announced as the best players for the respective teams. This is Kristina’s fifth time in a row awarded the Beryl Godfrey Trophy as best player for WA whilst it was also a remarkable achievement for Williams to win the Eddy/Wishart Award in his first series. Krstic and Williams will be presented with their awards at the Bowls WA Annual Dinner and Awards Night on Friday May 25th at Crown Perth.
The 2019 Australian Sides Series will be held in New South Wales, April 25-28.
Read more about this event via the Bowls Australia website click here
Full results of the Australian Sides Series click here
Photos of the WA players at this event can be found on our Bowls WA Facebook Page
