GOLD Medal for Norfolk Island

At the recently held inaugural Digicel Oceania Challenge Carmen Anderson OAM won the Gold Medal in the Ladies Singles.

Evergreen Carmen who first won a World Bowls Singles Gold medal back in 1996 and backed it up on 2016, still has the tenacity to compete at the highest level and this was demonstrated at the newest World Bowls event the Digicel Oceania Challenge. This Challenge has come about as there was a need for competition at its highest level to promote the Pacific Islands bowls and to enhance the ability of their players, this came about since the removal of the Asia Pacific Championship which was a qualifying event for the World Bowls Championship, which is due to be held on the Gold Coast in Aug-Sep this year. Teams from across the Pacific (Norfolk Is, New Zealand, Aotearoa Māori, Fiji, Samoa, Niue, Tonga, Cook Islands, Tokelau) (Australia declined due to financial reasons I believe) came together at the Block House Bay Bowls Greens to play for the inaugural Cup over 4 days. The competition was of the highest quality, and being played on 20sec greens which made it extremely difficult at times, esp. with the wind. The Norfolk Island Ladies representatives, Carmen Anderson OAM, Petal Jones, Vivian DeLaCruz, Debby Adam’s & Myka Quintal together with the Men’s team, Trev Gow, Phil Jones, Tim Sheridan, Stephen Mathews & Jordy Jones exemplified the bowls spirit in the way they played their bowls. All teams

were unfortunate not to qualify in more disciplines, with the Men’s Triples winning 3 out of 4 games but missed out on margins, as well as Trev in the last singles match who needed to win by 5 to qualify, fell short by 2 Shots in a come behind win. The Island had a few first time representative players and their all stood up to the task. The full results are on the Clubs Facebook page.

Norfolk Islands Carmen Anderson did the Island Proud by winning the Gold Medal Match at the Digicel Oceania Challenge playing Anne Samasoni Gately from Tokelau in the Women's Singles.

What a celebration! and what a match with the last bowls from both players a beauty with Carmen trailing the kitty a few inches to be holding game and then Anne played a bomb to also trail the kitty a few inches but unfortunately for her, her bowl got caught up on Carmen’s bowl and didn’t follow through enough for her. GOLD to Carmen.

Watch the match here: https://www.youtube.com/live/g41ihhuLpIE?feature=share

Not much other bowls news from the Club due to the wet weather but the Club opens each day from 11am with a full bar service complimented by the Bistro open from 11am-2pm for lunch and reopens at 5:30-8pm for dinner service. Welcome back to Nicole who has come on board behind the bar, great worker to compliment the fantastic team at the Bowlo.

See you all on the greens soon.