State Championship Week

State Championships Week 2021

Our State Championships Week comes to South Tamworth from 3-7 May 2021! Bowls nomination and online registration will be available soon.

Ballina RSL Bowling Club

State Championships Week 2019

6-10 May 2019
Ballina RSL Bowling Club, Ballina NSW

Thanks to the hosts, greenkeepers and supporters for another great week at  Ballina. 

Our host for the last two years, Duncan Elphick during the last two years, presented the greens to an extremely high standard and planned everything from a courtesy bus to meals. His all-round hard work has set the bar high and exceeded our expectations.

The weather forecast had as all continually checking in the lead-up as rain was on the radar right up to the day before. But the weather gods were kind, with a great turn up of 44 Bowling Greenkeepers from across NSW, Queensland and ACT putting pressure on me as the Bowls Secretary to get three rounds of pairs and three rounds of singles completed on Monday and Tuesday.

Ben Morthorpe goes back 2 back in Singles

Singles Winner Ben Morthorpe

From the start of the singles, Ben was the man to beat. He came from a tough section of the draw, having to beat ACT legend Wade Turner (Queanbeyan RSL), local hope Paul Earl (Pottsville) and Queenslander Graham Cooper in his first three games, to set up a semi-final with Birrong’s Adam Troth, who was in top form after taking out veteran Brian Anderson (Ret Tuncurry) in the quarter final. Although Ben ran out 31-21 winner over Adam, the scores were level on 9 all and 13-12 before Ben won 6 ends in a row to take control of the match.

On the other side of the draw, quarter finals included previous winner Dave Croad (Hat Head) taking on in-form Jason Stewart (Greta Workers) and dark horse Danny Knight (Urunga) taking on Brent Norman (Cabra-Vale Diggers).

Jason Stewart continued his great form defeating Dave Croad and the other quarter final was a classic with Hey Danny benefiting from his early night in bed to push and dominate the match with some precision conversion shots, to just get pipped at the post by Brent. In the semi-final clash Brent knew he had to lift and inspired by dodging a bullet in the quarter final, quickly found his line and length to runout a 31-7 winner over Jason.

A lot was up for grabs with the new singles trophy designed and put together by host Duncan on the line. The battle between former boss and apprentice after a week of over 10 games of bowls in 4 days and a few ales both guys were starting to feel fatigued. Brent was able to take the lead at one stage 15-13, but the constant peppering of the Jjck saw Ben string together 9 out of 10 ends to run out the winner 31-20 and claim back to back titles.

Historic Victory as Ben Morthorpe & Brent Norman take out the Pairs title

Pairs winners Brent Norman and Ben Morthorpe

The 2019 state Greenkeepers pairs got underway on Monday 6th May under beautiful sunny conditions. Monday was a hectic day with three games of 18 ends and the last game played under some makeshift lights, with close to a. 8.30 pm finish.
As the dust settled on Monday night we were left with semi-finals Brian Anderson and Kevin Bowcock (Ret. Avoca Beach) surviving early round winning by 1 shot then 2 shots before defeating last year’s runners up Barry Wilkinson (Ret. Coonabarabran) and John Flaherty (Royal Sydney) in the quarter final 20-12.

The team of Damien Miller (Young) & Wade Turner also survived some early tight games to make their way through to the semi-finals defeating young guns Dan Peck and Mitch McDonnell (Halekulani) 18-10 in the quarter final and set the semi against Brian and Kevin.

In the bottom half of the draw, the defending champions Ben Morthorpe and Brent Norman were looking in red hot, form winning their first matches by a total of 59 shots to make their way into the quarter finals and set up a clash with Col McPherson (Tweed Heads) and Paul Earl, who also had three solid victories.

So semi-finals were played on the Wednesday afternoon after some morning singles matches. (Unfortunately, the semi-finals ran out of light and the decision was made to finish these games in the morning, with Brian and Kevin leading Damien and Wade 15-6 with 7 ends remaining. The other semi came to a holt with Ben and Brent leading Col & Paul 11-5 after 13 ends. The semi-finals were back on the greens early Thursday at 8.15am after some quick preparation from Duncan.

Thursday was finals day but first we had to finish the semi-final matches. Brian and Kevin continued from the night before, holding off Damien and Wade to record a 21-11 victory. Ben and Brent also continued with their game to record a 18-9 victory over Col and Paul.

After a short break, the final got underway, played in good spirits with some quality heads of bowls. Ben and Brent again found their rhythm early to jump 11-5 lead after 8 ends, but to Brian & Kevin’s credit they fought back to narrow the gap to 9-11 over next 3 ends. This fight back spurred Ben and Brent back into gear, winning the next 6 of 7 ends to open a match winning lead 20-6 after 15. Again, Brian and Kevin fought hard, but ran out of ends with the final score finishing 21-11. This created history for Ben being the first player to winning back to back singles and pairs.

President steals victory in Plate Pairs
For the second year we ran the plate pairs for first and second losers as two sets and tie break system. Teams are drawn out of the hat with some interesting greenies teaming up together. This concept seems to work well with guys getting the opportunity to play with a different partner with different conditions of play.

The main talking point out of the early rounds was Simon Cooper winning a set 18-0 and then losing the match in a tiebreaker.

After some interesting games, semi-finals came down to Local gun Duncan Elphick and Mark Wilcher (South West Rocks) taking on 2 x Australian Singles Champion Peter Watts (Belconnen) and NSWBGA President Michael Woods (South Tamworth). This game came down to an exciting 1 end tie-break victory to Peter and Michael.
In the other plate semi-final, local retired Greenkeeper Glen Grady and Proud Parra Man Rod Crean (Lawson) vs Jason Stewart & Dave Croad. The combination of Jason and Dave proved too strong and they made their way to the final.

The final was played at the same time as the major final, with the quality of bowls worthy of spectators watching both games with interest. This game could not have been better scripted, with the NSWBGA President Michael Woods playing a bomb to take out the plate title.

General info

To be eligible for Bowls Week, you must be a financial member of the NSWBGA (if not $50 to be paid)
• State uniform must be worn (uniforms available to be purchased from Simon Cooper 0425 280 306)

The next State Championship Week will be held in 2021 as 2020 is Federation Week at the Gold Coast.

Check out the action from our 2018 State Champs Week