Friday 13 June 2025 Riley Harrison Shane Ettridge Another fantastic day on the green this time at Nerang, the home of McKenzie Park.
Riley and I battled hard across 3 great games. Two greens running 13 seconds and 18 seconds tested all bowlers. After dropping the first game, we worked hard to win game two quite convincingly.
Game three was a great learning experience against two Victorian Premier League players. Riley took over the skipper role and was easily best on rink. Playing some absolute bombs to keep us in the fight till the very end. Stay tuned for our updates on the fours sectional as we take on world champion Blake Signal.
Sunday 8 June 2025
Greetings from the sunshine state! We are off and running in the 2025 Australian open and having an absolute blast! Rocket, Riley, Richard and I all took to the greens on Sunday to play our singles sectional.
From Ettridge Jnr:
I was very happy to be playing at Mudgeeraba. One of the smaller clubs up here with beautiful greens and very welcoming staff and volunteers. Game 1: I played one of the two highly rated players in my section. He represented Helensvale which is a powerhouse of Queensland bowls. I got off to a solid start and it was a close game until he picked up a couple threes to secure the match 21-15.
Game two and three were nail biting affairs. Trailing 17-19 I managed to draw four shots to get over the line. This is the first time in my bowls career id been able to this. I felt great!
Game three was against a chap from W.A, a really serious bowler. I lead for most of the game until he jumped ahead to lead me 20-19. On the next end i was holding shot and had the last bowl. I managed to draw a second to win 21-20. Whilst this wasn't quite enough to get out of my section, I had a lot of fun and learnt a lot!
From Riley: Three games played, three losses and a world of experience gained. I ventured out to the beautiful grounds of Robina Bowling Club. It being slightly quainter than some of the other behemoth clubs on the Gold Coast was lovely to experience. The greens were in great nick and while not as fast as the hallowed turf at Sturt, they were quicker than many other greens up this way.
My first game was a tight tussle against the eventual victor of our section. We both had our moments, but it was my opponent who was eventually able to capitalise on a brief lapse in concentration from myself to take the win 16-21. Games two and three provided some great opportunities to play some shots. It was a classic case of my good bowls being every bit good enough to win matches up here but there were far too many shots that weren’t. All in all it was a very enjoyable day of bowling, and I can vouch for the fact that XXXX Gold tastes superior the closer we get to the source.
From Richard:
I was fortunate to be drawn to play my singles at Club Helensvale, which is newly renovated and nothing short of incredible as an overall facility. I played my matches undercover on the carpet greens, which were very good but differed in pace by around 2 seconds.
I was comfortably beaten in my first by match a guy who was extremely consistent with his draw bowling. He went on to beat everyone in my section comfortably. I then had 2 comfortable wins in my other matches and finished second in my group. The guys I played against were all very nice and we had a good day of bowls.
From Rocket:
Played at Musgrave. Loss, Win, Loss. Happy with his form, happy to get a win and not disgraced in any game. The Club Pres is seeing some amazing things in game of lawn bowls up here…