State side preview 2009

March 20, 2009

The Men’s State side left this morning for Canberra to contest the Ally Shield

After almost winning the Shield in Tasmania in 2007.that performance was followed by another pretty good performance at Osborne Park in 2008 even though they finished 5th.

The 2008 Sides series was played in pretty difficult conditions, there was only one game you could really point the finger at the team was the losing game to the A.C.T. after holding a 38 shot lead, this game finished at around 10.30 PM at night after it was decided to play three games on the Tuesday to make up for lost time.

The team faced a difficult task against the giants of the lawn bowls scene in 2007 almost succeeding and a reasonably good performance last year where W.A showed they were one of the big sides in the competition to win the Ally Shield

Looking at some of the other States competing it is clear they have bolstered their teams to become stronger than they were for the last series

This year we have two of everything, two new selectors, two new skippers, Trystan Smallacombe and John Goddard, two new seconds and two new leaders, amounts one big re-arrangement of the side, it now makes W.A an unknown quantity .

Two of the changes were forced upon the selectors, what a huge loss for the W.A side losing the Alan Eddy medallist and skipper Jon Sharp who had a brilliant series at Osborne Park. He wll be missed.

John Goddard has finally been given the chance he very much deserves to skipper a rink, it was only last year he had been demoted to leader then on second thoughts, the selectors placed him back into the thirds position.

Trystan Smallacombe has also been given the coveted skippers role, it is the first time for Trystan in this position. In the last series he played three to Jon Sharp and had a very good series.

Pieter Harris is now the old man of the side even though he is still very young. He has been a terrific skipper over the past 5 years for W.A, Pieter boasts a fine record and only last year did he go under the halfway mark in wins and losses when the rink won 3 from 7 games.

Russell Hughes did a great job for W.A last year winning 5 from 7 games, my records show 5 games won. Due to the monumental stuff up from Bowls Australia regarding results of last year’s game results where we are still none the wiser, there are no records available to see if the figure is correct or incorrect.

I am sure that the players from Russell’s rink would have corrected the position if it is wrong.

Probably one of the most unusual moves is where we see that Russell Hughes, a State skipper, has been replaced as a skipper at Victoria Park about 5/6 weeks ago.
Last Friday evening saw his rink flogged in the State side v the Metro Allstars game, even though the side made a late comeback in the game the horse had already bolted. However I have every confidence the rink can play to it’s proven ability

Last but not least we wish the side every success in their endeavours to win the Ally Shield for the first time since 1999