By
SGT Scott Kohler
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Leading
Aircraftwoman Pauline Burgess sends down her bowl while
in action for the Queensland team at the ADF National Lawn
Bowls Championships in Brisbane.
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Photo
by SGT Scott Kohler
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AIR
Force lawn bowlers were rolled but far from bowled over by Army
in the annual tussle for turf supremacy during the ADF National
Lawn Bowls Championships in Brisbane from September 1-5.
The event also 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.
Navy, too, surfaced, with a wave of new talent having struggled
against Army and Air Force in recent years.
Army got away to its usual fast start and Navy trailed 27 shots
to 33 but clawed back to level the scores at the halfway mark.
With just four ends to play on each of the five rinks, Navy was
set to cause a boilover, leading 83-77, but Army’s teams
skippered by Warrant Officer One Mick Carley, Warrant Officer
Two Neale Pearson and Sergeant Andrew Kerley, rallied in the dying
stages to give Army the match 125-90.
Navy then took on the Air Force and was hammered 159-54. The Air
Force team was stunned at the ease of its victory and went into
the decider supremely confident of snatching the title from Army.
One shot separated the teams a third of the way through the game,
with Air Force finding it difficult to recapture its form against
Navy.
Army soon widened the gap to 18 shots and kept applying the pressure,
suffocating Air Force out of the game to continue the “Red
Machine’s” dominance at national level, winning 109-74.
Meanwhile, the battle for the State Championship was fought between
five teams.
Victoria was in a rebuilding phase and was expected to find it
tough to defend its title, while word from the NSW camp suggested
this was finally going to be their year following a successful
NSW carnival.
Queensland, Barbarians and NSW quickly established themselves
as the teams to beat.
The
Barbarians faced Queensland in an enthralling contest with scores
locked at 65 apiece across all four rinks with four ends to play.
For Queensland, Major Peter O’Gorman’s team finished
off its game in style and Warrant Officer One Kevin Oong’s
team held off their opponents to give their state two wins, but
the Barbarians gained momentum through the teams skipped by player
of the series, Army’s WO1 Mick Carley and Air Force’s
Corporal Pedro Petersen.
They both got up, tying the rinks at two-all and pushing the Barbarians
to victory scoring 81 shots to 74.
NSW took on Barbarians, scoring a surprise 32-shot victory and
looked a strong favourite going into the final game against Queensland
which had the huge task of having to beat NSW by 54 shots to take
the title.
NSW got off to a great start and reproduced its lead-up form,
winning by 29 shots and keeping an unbeaten record intact, allowing
it to regain the trophy last won in 1998.
Corporal Pete Douglass’s team was superb. Assisted by fellow
RAAFies Wing Commander Victor Emmanuel, Sergeant Mick Powell and
Navy’s Wade Vidulich, the team swept aside all opponents
to score comfortable wins.
The 76 bowlers were also under the watchful eye of Royal Queensland
Bowls Association State Selector Don Ryan.
Mr Ryan selected 16 players to represent the Australian Defence
Force on the final day against the host club Ferny Grove and his
judgment was justified – the ADF running out easy winners
in all four games.
The
bowlers were most grateful to National Purchasing Manager from
Serco Sedexho Bruce Stone and Defence Services for supplying team
shirts for the three services and for NSW.
For more information about ADF lawn bowls, visit the website at
http://intranet.defence.gov.au/raafweb/sites/ADFBOWLS/
