Moama Bowling Club hosts national qualifying event

By Josh Huntly

Jun 15, 2022

Marching on: Tallygaroopna Bowling Club’s Matt Robertson, pictured here in his sectional match-up against Barry Brennan, qualified for the Australian Indoor Championships alongside clubmate Guy Madigan. Photo: Josh Huntly

The Australian Indoor Championship (AIC) qualifiers took place at Moama Bowling Club recently, one of eight venues in Victoria to host an event for the national singles championship in Tweed Heads come August.

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With two spots up for grabs at the Moama qualifiers after the 2021 event was cancelled, Tallygaroopna Bowling Club filled both with clubmates Matt Robertson and Guy Madigan bound for the 2022 iteration of the AIC after Sunday’s semi-finals.

Rolling on: Moama’s Barry Brennan goes head-to-head with Tallygaroopna’s Matt Robertson at the Australian Indoor Championship qualifiers at Moama Bowling Club. Photo: Josh Huntly

Madigan bested one of the pre-qualifying favourites Ben Winther (Whittlesea) 16 shots to 11 after the match went to a tie-break set, while Robertson also had a tie-break win over Inverloch’s Wayne Parks.

Moama Bowling Club’s Stuart Whyte said Robertson, a Victorian state bowls selector, was a known quantity, but Madigan’s win was something of an upset.

“Guy Madigan, he’s only been playing for about three years, and basically entered the event as a bit of experience just to try and go up against some good bowlers,” Whyte said.

“He beat the favourite across the field; if you look across it Ben (Winther) would have been one of the favourites to go through.

“Now (Guy’s) ended up qualifying for the main event in August.”

District bowlers Whyte, Steve Cunnington (Echuca) and Rod Werner (Mathoura) progressed through to the last 16 after sectional play on Saturday.

Werner succumbed to eventual semi-finalist Winther, while Cunnington had a 17-7 victory over Tally’s Mitch Sidebottom, before bowing out in the quarter-finals to Robertson.

Whyte’s tie-break set against Wayne Parks in the quarters went the way of the Inverloch bowler.

Overall, Whyte said the weekend qualifiers pulled in a swag of quality players from across Victoria.

“We had good representation from across the state,” Whyte said.

“We ended up with 33 competitors split across 12 sections with some Victoria state representatives, a couple of players from state pennant championships and some high quality bowlers from across Victoria.”