Country members battle it out for ACT Men’s C of CC Singles
It was a clash of the cross-border clubs on the weekend when Yass’ Breeze Howard met Queanbeyan’s Scott Dagwell in the final of the Men’s Champion of Club Champion Singles at Canberra North Bowling Club. With all participants having previously won their club championships to qualify, the field was always going to be a strong one. With the early rounds disposing of most candidates, the semi-finals were each case of young(er) versus old(er) players. In the first Semi, Yowani’s Flynn O’Shaughnessy, having dispatched Canberra’s David Lindbeck by a tiny margin the day before, was unable to stand up to the consistency displayed by Queanbeyan’s Dagwell. On the other rink, Howard was engaged in his own battle with QRSLM champion Robert Craven. Whilst both had had relatively easy wins to make it thus far, there was nothing easy about this match, with Howard running out the victor by only 2 shots.
The final was another hot match (and I use this term metaphorically because it was played in freezing conditions!) with the score tied at 19 all at one point. However, Dagwell was unable to further capitalise on any opportunities and Howard took the match 25-19.
Howard now has the opportunity to represent the ACT at the National Champion of Champions event being played in Darwin in October. It was a clash of the cross-border clubs on the weekend when Yass’ Breeze Howard met Queanbeyan’s Scott Dagwell in the final of the Men’s Champion of Club Champion Singles at Canberra North Bowling Club. With all participants having previously won their club championships to qualify, the field was always going to be a strong one. With the early rounds disposing of most candidates, the semi-finals were each case of young(er) versus old(er) players. In the first Semi, Yowani’s Flynn O’Shaughnessy, having dispatched Canberra’s David Lindbeck by a tiny margin the day before, was unable to stand up to the consistency displayed by Queanbeyan’s Dagwell. On the other rink, Howard was engaged in his own battle with QRSLM champion Robert Craven. Whilst both had had relatively easy wins to make it thus far, there was nothing easy about this match, with Howard running out the victor by only 2 shots.
The final was another hot match (and I use this term metaphorically because it was played in freezing conditions!) with the score tied at 19 all at one point. However, Dagwell was unable to further capitalise on any opportunities and Howard took the match 25-19.
In the women’s event, nineteen year old Chloe Morrison from Tuggeranong defeated the Creek’s Sharon Steel making her the ‘bridesmaid’ again having been runner up to Ruth Moore in the state singles earlier this year. As Steele commented after the match, Chloe came out of the blocks on fire and there was nothing I could do to reign her in.” Morrison stunned many of the spectators with her match of the previous day when she demolished a recovering-from-injury Ruth Moore (City) 25-5. She then faced QRSLM’s Catherine Hunt who made her work harder but she still came away with a win 25-19. Steele’s path to the finals was a serious of close matches defeating Lorraine Donney from Queanbeyan 25-23 and then having to face Hilary Merritt on her home turf, ending up winner by only 25-21.
Howard and Morrison now have the opportunity to represent the ACT at the National Champion of Champions event being played in Darwin in October.
A good crowd came out to support their players on both days and the atmosphere, if nothing else, was electric!
Bowls ACT extends a huge thanks to the members of Canberra North RUC for hosting the event and for providing markers so that no players had to. Umpires (John Birch, Bruce Pink) and markers (Jenny Van Vucht) also assisted. Thanks, too, to Bowls ACT Board Members Bev and Roger for marking the finals when they could have been warm in front of the fire!
