Darwin teams claim 2021 State Fours Men’s and Ladies Championships
One of the largest fields for several years competed in both the Men’s and Ladies 2021 State Fours Championships with several matches seeing fierce competition and high quality bowls.
The Ladies saw the Darwin team of Colleen Orr, Siobhan Tootell, Karen Lane, and Sez James claim their stake to the 2021 Title with a consistent performance throughout the tournament, winning the final 24/7 in a convincing win over Bronwyn Hagger, Joan Garner, Dee Harrison, and Lynne Hayhow. Despite their strong performance, they were very lucky to escape the semi-final, winning on the last couple of bowls to sneak in by one shot (13/12) over Lisa Hambour, Pauline Mckenzie, Jodie Reichstein, and Jen Sullivan (all Darwin) after 15 ends.
In the other semi-final, Bronwyn Hagger (Katherine), Joan Garner (Nightcliff) Dee Harrison (Darwin), and Lynne Hayhow (Darwin) also had to fight to reach the final by overcoming Jen Redshaw (Darwin), Deb Vallance (Nightcliff), Kathy Que Noy (Darwin), and Val Durand (Nightcliff) also by one shot winning 13/12.
The win by Colleen Orr’s team allowed both Colleen, Karen Lane, and Sez James to claim their second State title for 2021. Colleen and Karen teamed up earlier in the year with Jen Sullivan to win the 2021 State Triples and Sez James took out her maiden Singles title just one week ago.
The men’s championship saw Darwin’s Pete De Greenlaw, Peter Wibberley, Barry Orr, and Dimitri Hnaris work well together to take out the Championship after strong and consistent performances throughout the tournament.
In the Quarter Final, the Nightcliff team of Scott Hollingworth, Jade Groenewege, Peter Bowman and Xavier McGowan pushed De Greenlaw’s team to the end eventually going down 18/15 in a tight match where Hollingworth’s team made a strong comeback. In all of De Greenlaw’s other matches they were able to break away early and win by good margins.
Throughout the tournament, Jason Wholohan, Buster Quinlan, Martin Miller, and John McCallion (all Nightcliff) had very strong performances, but were put under consistent pressure by De Greenlaw’s team in the final to eventually lose 24/11.
Pete De Greenlaw, Barry Orr and Dimitri Hnaris have in recent years been runners up twice in this event, so they were determined that this was their year.
Last years winners, Mark Malogorski (Nightcliff) Trystan Smallacombe (Darwin), Ian Smith (Darwin), and Paul Roden (Darwin) had a narrow loss in their Quarter Final to the Darwin team of Warren Corowa, Jonard Galicinao, Danial Fekos, and Johnno Carr, with the final score being 14/13.
Both the winning Men’s and Ladies teams will now head to the Australian Nationals in October on the Gold Coast, where they will represent the Northern Territory to compete for a National Fours title against the State Fours champions from each of the other States and Territories.
To see the results for all matches, CLICK HERE
