By
SGT Scott Kohler
 |
|
With
four ends to play on each of the five rinks, Navy were set
to cause a boilover leading 83 - 77 but Army rallied in
the dying stages to take the match 125 - 90.
|
Navy
surfaced with a wave of new talent at the ADF National Lawn Bowls
Championships in Brisbane from September 1-5.
With a record number of competitors, Army continued their stranglehold
on the Service Champions trophy, though Navy looks good for future
competitions.
The championships heralded the return of the once mighty NSW as
a bowling force as 76 competitors from all states demonstrated
the depth and growing popularity of the sport within the ADF.
Army got away to a fast start leaving Navy trailing 27 - 33. Navy
clawed back to level the scores at the halfway mark.
With four ends to play on each of the five rinks, Navy were set
to cause a boilover leading 83 - 77 but Army rallied in the dying
stages to take the match 125 - 90.
Navy then took on the RAAF and were beaten decisively 159-54.
RAAF were stunned at the ease of their victory and went into the
decider supremely confident they could snatch the title from Army.
RAAF found it difficult to recapture their form against Navy,
and within 30 minutes Army widened the gap to 18 shots, suffocating
their opponents, 109 - 74.
The battle for the State Championship was fought between five
teams.
Victoria were in a ‘rebuilding’ phase and were expected
to find it tough to defend their title and word from the NSW camp
suggested this was finally going to be their year following a
successful NSW Carnival.
NSW took on Barbarians scoring a surprise 32 shot victory and
were looking like strong favourites going into the final game
against Queensland who had the huge task of having to beat NSW
by 54 shots if they wanted the title.
NSW got off to a great start, winning by 29 shots, keeping their
unbeaten record intact allowing them to regain the trophy they
last won in 1998.
CPL Pete Douglass’ team was superb. Assisted by WGCDR Victor
Emmanuel and SGT Mick Powell and Navy’s Wade Vidulich, they
swept aside all opponents to score comfortable wins.
The bowlers thank Bruce Stone, National Purchasing Manager from
Serco Sedexho, Defence Services, for supplying team shirts for
the three Services and for NSW.
For more information, visit http://intranet.defence.gov.au/raafweb/sites/ADFBOWLS/
