Third test is the charm

by admin on January 16, 2017

The third and final test of the 2017 Interstate Series was the most successful as both men and women’s teams claimed a win. (Pictured left: The victorious Queensland men’s state team holding the Wal Currey Shield after winning the men’s 2017 QLD v NSW Test Series at Kawana, QLD, Jan 16-17.)

MEN – QLD WIN SERIES 2-1
After a seemingly impossible comeback yesterday in the second test of the QLD vs NSW Test Series (Jan 16-17), anything was possible in today’s third and final test for the Queensland men’s team who managed to push ahead of the Blues to claim the Series title.

Queensland skip Nathan Rice’s rink (Jacob Nelson, Brett Wilkie and Jayden Christie) was at the forefront of QLD’s pursuit of the Wal Currey Shield, with the boys beating the NSW rink skipped by David Ferguson 20-16.

Kawana’s Kurt Brown at his home club skipped his QLD rink of Steve McNamee, Jay Cross and Sean Ingham to a much-needed second victory in the crucial third test, taking an early lead. NSW made a late comeback but they were unable to catch up, the Maroons winning 24-17.

With two rink wins in the bag, there was leeway for Sean Baker’s boys, who just missed out. They were drawn on the 16th end at 18-18 and going for a clean sweep for QLD in the third test, but the opposition had other ideas, managing to sqeak past QLD for a 23-21 rink win.

But it was no trouble for the Maroons men to clinch the third test (and Series win!), the two shot deficit on the Baker rink more than covered by the wins on the other two rinks, QLD men winning the third test by 13 shots, 67 – 54.

WOMEN – NSW WIN SERIES 2-1

QLD skip Lynsey Clarke’s rink had strong wins in the first two tests but missed out on a clean sweep when Natasha Scott’s NSW rink pulled off a 21-16 win in the final test.

However, the Queensland women were still happy with their results in the third test.
Despite losing “The Ashes”, they denied the powerful NSW women’s side a clean sweep of the Series by winning the third test, with two rink wins.

These were claimed by Broadbeach skips Cassandra Millerick and Julie Keegan, Millerick defeating NSW legend Beth Quinlan 21-14 and Keegan’s side going 20-17 up over Blues skip Kelsey Cottrell.

Helensvale’s Georgia White who played alongside skip Keegan, Samantha Wilson and Kristy Thatcher says she was pleased with the third test result, after a tough first two tests.
“I was pleased with the result today, it was tough going into the third test two-down, losing the first two was hard,” White said.
“We went out today though and managed to pull together at the right time to just get over the line, which was good.”
To see the full results and draw please visit the Bowls Queensland results page available here.