State Championship Week

State Championships Week 2024

Local wine from Freeman Vineyards, Kingsvale in the Hilltops region. Image courtesy Destination NSW.

Join us in the cherry capital of Australia for State Championships Week at the Young Bowling Club from 5-9 May 2024.

We are looking forward to another fun week of bowls and networking in the beautiful Hilltops region of country NSW.

Registration for this event is $350 which includes entry into the State Singles and Pairs bowls championships as well as lunch and dinner Monday – Thursday.

Accommodation suggestions are being organised by Simon Cooper.

Email nswbga@gmail.com to register.

Highlights from State Champs 2022

Sunday 1 May to Friday 6 May 2022, South Tamworth Bowling Club

Sunset at State Champs Week South Tamworth

Thanks to everyone who joined us in Tamworth for our second State Championship Week at South Tamworth Bowling Club.

All the action – with Ben Morthorpe

WE were back at South Tamworth for the 2nd year of the NSW Bowling Greenkeepers Championships held from Monday May 2nd through until Thursday 5th May. Sunday afternoon again proved the meeting time for the majority of the Greenkeepers to catch up. Unfortunately, some familiar faces were missing, but we had a lot of new faces come for their first time and I’m sure not their last. With the sun shining and the greens running a kind 16 seconds, the round of 16 pairs had begun on the Monday. The standard of the greens was fantastic, and credit must go to State President Michael Woods and Craig Graham as the host greenkeepers.

NSWBGA STATE PAIRS CHAMPIONSHIP

State Champs Week Pairs finals

Once the dust had settled after 2 games, we were now down to our Semi-final match ups these included:
– Damien Miller/Wade Turner v Blayne Cook/Aaron Appleby
– Luke Wade/Adam Troth v Mitch McDonell/Hemi Palmer

So, the scene was set for the semi-final stage Miller/Turner v Cook/Appleby & McDonnell/Palmer v Wade/Troth. With Mother Nature providing us with the beautiful sunshine, our President had the greens running true, level and timed at 17 seconds which made for some fantastic heads. The Turner v Appleby was a very tight battle with scores locking at 5 all, 12 all and 15 all, until Damo and Poppy picked up a 4 on the 17th end to sneak away with a 22-15 win.

In the other game of Troth v Palmer started off a little different with the pairing of Wade & Troth wining the first 9 ends to jump out to a 16-0 lead. McDonnell & Palmer tried to fight back but the consistency of Lukey Wade up front was too much with a win of 21-7.The Final was played on Thursday 5th, after receiving a light downfall of rain, the amazing surfaces at South Tamworth were still running 15 seconds, this game could of gone t either way with the lead changing several times over the first 7 ends until Wade & Troth scoring a 6,2,3 and 1 on consecutive to jump out to a 18-7 lead.
After 13 ends and the score of 20-7 Troth, most people thought the game was over, except for the pairing of Miller/Turner who dug deep wining the next 6 ends to make it 20-19 with two ends to go.

With the crowd now on the edge of their seats and the heads tighter then Simon Cooper’s shirts, the 2nd last end changed multiple times until Troth’s last bowl changed the head from 3 down to 1 up. This gave the pair a 2-shot lead going into the last end.

The last end saw some great opening bowls from both Wade & Miller and the skippers both needing to change the head in their favour.
After the leads played their 4th bowls, the jack had been moved out to the boundary peg where the pairing of Miller/Wade held two shots which gave them a draw an

Pairs winners Wade Turner and Damien Miller

d extra end. With the green taking plenty of grass, troth narrowly missed drawing the shot, this gave Turner the chance to draw another shot to hold the win and put the pressure on Troth to save the game. After much discussion, Troth decided to go for a draw shot to either cut the count back to 1 or get the shot, with the Troth bowl on its way and the crowd watching closely the bowl unfortunately slipped past just missing out on 3rd shot which meant the pairing of Miller & Turner had snuck home for the win and was the 2022 state pairs champions.

Final Result- Damien Miller & Wade Turner 22  Luke Wade & Adam Troth 21

PLATE PAIRS CHAMPIONSHIPS
After round 2 results all unsuccessful players go into the plate pairs with names drawn out of the hat for combinations and played under 2 sets of 7 ends plus 1 end tiebreaker if necessary.

After 2 rounds the final was between Barry Wilkinson & Steve Britt vs Adam Webb & Clayton Rogers and in another entertaining final the experienced pairing of Wilko & Britt proved too strong.

Final Result – Barry Wilkinson & Steve Britt 2 sets Adam Webb & Clayton Rogers 0

NSWBGA STATE SINGLES CHAMPIONSHIP
On Tuesday it was Singles time and again we witnessed two Rounds to kick off day 2 of the tournament with some mouth-watering early round match ups, we were down to our last 8 quarter finalists. Quarter final match ups featured the following:

Singles Champ Adam Troth

Luke Wade vs Adam Troth
Ben Morthorpe vs Lee Johnson
Gavin Speers vs Aaron Appleby
Adam Webb vs Peter Watts

Morthorpe vs Johnson was live streamed with Lee having the better of the early stages before Ben fought back but wasn’t enough as Lee finished strong winning 25-21 ending the dominance Ben has held on this event over the last 3 years.

Wade vs Troth game saw a tight tussle early until Troth running away from his long-time pairs partner victorious 25-16.

Speers vs Appleby game saw Speers jumping out to a 9-1 lead which proved to strong for Appleby fight back eventually winning 25-15.
Webb vs Watts saw a back-and-forth tussle with the lead changing multiple times until Webb got the better of Watts winning 25-20.

Semi-final 1 saw Troth v Johnson. Troth jumped out to an 8-1 lead and never looked back playing some fantastic bowls to win 25-2.
Semi Final 2 saw Speers v Webb. With early pressure from Speers, he jumped out to an early lead and continued the pressure winning 25-12.

So, the stage was set for the Singles final with Adam Troth going for his second title and Gavin Speers going for his first title (pictured top).

As per many games during the week, the large spectator group were expecting nothing but a classic final and the boys didn’t let them down. Troth jumped out to an early lead of 12-4 until Speers fought back to be 15-11 down, but the consistency of Adams first two bowls kept the pressure on and eventually ran away with the win which made Adam Troth the 2022 state singles championship, his second Singles championship .

Final Result: Adam Troth 25 Gavin Speers 14.

Live Stream

Live stream and commentary at this year’s event

Reminder both finals can be viewed on our Facebook page NSW Bowling Greenkeepers Association, special thanks to Rodney Crean that did a lot of work behind the scenes to get the livestream action up and running and our fantastic commentary duo of Gosper and Watts for giving their insight.

President’s Challenge Greenies vs Hosts
With the annual Presidents challenge v Host played on Wednesday afternoon, the challenge saw 6 rinks of fours (24 players). With the Greenies Selector (President Wood) saw the Greenies too strong for the local South Tamworth side. The Greenies won 4 rinks to 2 with a masterboard score 96-59. A special mention to Kel Cartledge who picked up a 7 on her rink, but it was the birthday girl herself who missed out on making the 8.

Make sure you check out the Destination Tamworth website for all the information about visiting the area.

General info
• Must be a financial member of the NSWBGA (if not $50 to be paid)

Check out the 2021 State Champs Week, South Tamworth

Wrap up from 2019 State Champs Week, Ballina

Check out the action from our 2018 State Champs Week