UNDER 18 TRI-SERIES

Well done to the Queensland U18 team of eight girls and eight boys that competed in the inaugural Tri-Series between Queensland (QLD), New South Wales (NSW) and Victoria (VIC) from July 3-5, at Cabramatta BC in NSW. Although it was to be VIC who ultimately sat atop the points ladder, QLD came a well-deserved second place and the team can all be very proud of their efforts through stiff competition and challenging weather conditions.

Congratulations to the following six debutants who were presented with their State caps: Travis Pearce, Hayden Leslie, Lilly Vardy, Trent Brehmer, Lacey Gerick and Riley Gerick.

It was the first time this year the U18s had come together under test conditions, allowing selectors the opportunity to trial them in various positions in the teams.

Round 1 on the Monday was promising for Queensland when the Fours kicked off with a convincing win for the QLD girls’ team of Lacey Gerick, Sophie Allan, Dekota Brindle and Stella Palmer against VIC 17-7, while the second girls’ team lost to NSW 9-22. The boys’ team of Travis Pearce, Trent Brehmer, Sam Collier and Wyatt Martin had a small win over VIC 12-9 while the other QLD boys’ team drew with NSW 10-all.

The Fours continued into Round 2 the next day but play was forced undercover and onto carpet by the rain. The Gerick, Allan, Brindle and Palmer team again had a win, but this time only by 1 shot against NSW15-14. Losing by just 1 shot to VIC was the team of Lilly Vardy, Keira Powell, Holly Anderson and Corinne Stallan 11-12. The winning boys’ team from the previous day were to draw with NSW this time 13-all. The boys’ team of Riley Gerick, Hayden Leslie, Todd Brain and Jack Chirgwin saw a small 3-shot loss to VIC 11-14.

Triples and Singles events were played in Round 3. Palmer came out blazing with a 21-11 win against her NSW singles opponent, with Allan just losing out to her VIC opponent 18-21. Riley Gerick also had a good win against VIC 21-13, while Chirgwin was only just defeated by NSW by 1 shot 20-21

In the Triples, Vardy, Powell and Stallan blasted their NSW opponents 22-8. However, co-incidentally in the remaining three Triples games QLD were to go down to their State opponents by 3 shots in each game.

Rounds 4 and 5 were all about the Pairs and there were three convincing wins for QLD in Round 4: Vardy and Palmer defeated NSW 21-12, Riley Gerick and Chirgwin defeated NSW 29-7 and Pearce and Leslie defeated NSW 19-14. However, the balance of the QLD teams only went down by a very small margin each in their defeats. All up, QLD won 5 of the 8 rinks.

The tables had turned for Vardy and Palmer by Round 5 the next day with a 9-15 loss to VIC. This pairs game against Victoria was to prove particularly challenging for Palmer.

“We got off to a good start with Lilly, who is a brilliant bowler, placing lots of bowls in the head for me to work with,” Palmer said. “I wasn’t quite backing it up and felt I could have done better. We fought back, but it was a bit too late by then and we went down to Victoria by 6 shots.”

All up in Round 5, QLD won five rinks, lost two and drew one. QLD pairs Pearce and Leslie lost to VIC 14-22, with Leslie commenting that this was his toughest game.

“We had a really good start,” Leslie said. “We were up after two or three ends, then we had a couple of rough ends, dropped a couple of multiples and were behind by a big number, and then we just reduced the margin at the end.”

Round 6 was the final round for the Singles and Triples games. The Singles had Palmer edging over her VIC opponent by 2 shots 21-19, while Chirgwin trumped his NSW opponent by 4 shots 21-17. Sophie Allan went down in a 5-shot loss to her NSW opponent 16-21, with Riley Gerick dropping by just 2 shots to VIC 19-21

The QLD boys Triples team of Brain, Collier and Leslie rallied to win against the VIC team by a substantial margin 23-7, but the second boys Triples team couldn’t match their mates on the next rink and suffered a loss to NSW 12-17. The girls team of Gerick, Anderson and Stallan also took a loss against VIC 13-23. However, the trio of Vardy, Powell and skip Brindle defeated their NSW opponents 17-9.

All in all, Queensland put in a mighty effort that saw them take the middle ranking in the overall ladder, but they couldn’t quite get enough points to overtake their Victorian counterparts.

BQ Selector Christina (Chrissy) Pavlov said it was fantastic having the third State team of Victoria making up the inaugural Tri-Series. “To play, arguably, the three strongest States in the juniors in the Tri-Series, is fantastic,” Chrissy said. “Particularly heading to The Nationals and having to select five boys and five girls going forwards.”

Chrissy also highlighted that the States will be playing the same format at The Nationals at the end of the year, with the same disciplines and time constraints.

“I was really proud of their effort and performance; they all played to their potential and the standard was fantastic,” Chrissy said. “We have such a talented group of juniors coming through and it will be a really tough job for the selectors to reduce eight players to five.”

PLAYERS OF THE SERIES – STELLA PALMER & HAYDEN LESLIE

At the end of the event there is normally one player who stands out in each of the girls’ and boys’ teams. In this case it was Stella Palmer and Hayden Leslie.

“They both have great futures,” Chrissy said. “This was one of the best groups we have taken away, not just because of their talent, but the way they represent their State. I was just so proud of them.”

Palmer was surprised, but appreciative, when she was awarded Player of the Series. She said she didn’t see it coming and was left “rather speechless!”

Although Palmer has had some past experience playing against Victoria in The Nationals, she said it was really good to play with them consistently in this competition. “Initially I felt playing against Victoria was a challenge, but once I got over that, I was really happy with how I played!” Palmer said.

Palmer felt that playing with the different States in this series, plus gaining experience as a skip, she matured over the games. With the team taking on an extra State, it meant they had to work harder, which brought them closer together.

“This helped me become closer to my teammates, getting to know everyone equally off the green as well as on the green,” Palmer said. “There are lots of words that could describe the event, but the most overall word would be fun.”

Hayden Leslie came into the Tri-Series as a debutant and left as a Player of the Series medallist, much to his surprise. He felt he had played well and was confident on the green but thought that others were more likely to get that award than him.

Being a debutant, Hayden admitted to a few nerves at the start of the first game but once he got into the feel of the game, that flushed away and he just did his part for the team and contributed by being a motivator. Having played in big carnivals and events similar to this competition before certainly helped.

Not having played NSW before, Hayden didn’t find the experience of a Tri-Series with Victoria added into the mix an extra challenge as some of the more experienced Qld players did.

“It was super fun and it was exciting, thrilling and awesome to be a part of a State team for the first time,” Leslie said. “It was a big team effort.”

His take away from the event is that he knows where he is at against other States, and with a couple of wins and a draw he was really happy with the outcome.

“Queensland as a whole were a strong team; they only lost by one win at the very end and in five or six different games they only lost by one or two shots,” he said. “It could have gone any way at any time throughout the whole Test Series.”

Congratulations to all players on a well played first Tri-Series!

Qld U18 Girls Team

• Sophie Allan (Club Helensvale)

• Holly Anderson (Cunnamulla)

• Dekota Brindle (Hamilton)

• Lacey Gerick (Club Kawana)

• Stella Palmer (Roma)

• Keira Powell (Broadbeach)

• Corinne Stallan (Cooktown)

• Lilly Vardy (Club Tweed)

Final Standings:

Qld U18 Boys Team

• Todd Brain (Algester)

• Trent Brehmer (Algester)

• Jack Chirgwin (Glasshouse)

• Sam Collier (Broadbeach)

• Riley Gerick (Belmont Services)

• Hayden Leslie (Enoggera)

• Wyatt Martin (Gayndah)

• Travis Pearce (Kenilworth)

• Overall: VIC 75 +37, QLD 63 +75, NSW 39 -112.

• Girls: VIC 39 +29, QLD 31 +18, NSW 19 -47.

• Boys: VIC 36 +8, QLD 32 +57, NSW 20 -65.