Last Day

Thursday, 10 September 2015

1:04 AM

Today was the last day of competition and the final day went well for the Aussies. The morning saw all competitions in both the men's and ladies sections have good wins. The afternoon did likewise except for the men's triples which were beaten by New Zealand.

The presentations, which took place on the green saw brilliant sunshine for only the second time during the competition.

First the ladies results...

Dianna Reddick picked up her first international medal with a silver in the singles.  Northern Ireland the winner.

The pairs saw Robyn Larkin Lead and Gail Dellar skip pick up a silver medal( Gail's first medal also) Scotland the gold medal.

The triples saw our first gold medal with Dianna Reddick lead, Maureen Prudden 2nd and first time skip Janet Hogan being undefeated for the tournament.

The Ladies fours saw a silver medal. Scotland the gold medal

The points tally had the Australian ladies team win the ladies overall competition.

As the results show,  the men didn't repeat their Perth performance and the Uk dominated the medal tally with no southern hemisphere team winning a medal.

However the men winning 3 out 4 games on the last day help put the Australian team outright 3rd in the country competition .They finished behind northern Ireland and Scotland who have won the overall event for consecutive competitions.

Today the team had an organised tour of the Mourne Mountains and tonight the final event of the competition being the closing celebration dinner. At the dinner the host country for the 8th international deaf lawn bowls competition will be announced. The hot favorite is New Zealand.

Tomorrow the team  starts to head back to Australia although some members are including visits to various parts of Europe.

Hope everyone has enjoyed reading this post.

Before we finish the players would just like to thank all the people, clubs, bowling regions and organisations that have supported them.

Special thanks must go to

The umpires

Joy McDean who is our budding supporter and photographer who runs around tirelessly getting the photos of the scores and players after each game.

The following Bowls companies 

Drakes Pride 

Taylor Bowls 

Aero Bowls 

For assisting team members by providing new sets of bowls at no cost to players.

Day 8

The Aussies  had a bye today so they spent the day watching the other teams play.

Tomorrow is the last day of competition.

The results thus far-

Ladies Triples are 2 games ahead of the field.

Ladies singles pairs and fours will be decided on tomorrow's results, fingers crossed the ladies can make a clean sweep.

The men have had a most disappointing competition. In Perth 2011 the men won all but the pairs, but sad to say that this year they do not have 1 competition in the top 4. 

Both the ladies and the men play New Zealand tomorrow and we all hope we can end the competition on a high.

Day 7

Today was a rest day and a tour was organised to the Irish Coast.
The Ladders are very interesting with the results at the end of tomorrow setting up the scene for a rush for the medals on the final day. The only sure thing is that the ladies triples are well on their way to a gold medal. With 2 more days of competition it is still very tight in the other competitions. The men and ladies have a bye tomorrow and so marking duties are required.
On today's agenda is a trip to Dunluce Castle and then on to The Giant's Causeway.
Dunluce Castle was built in the 1500's and so everyone wonder what life must have been like back then.




The Giant's Causeway in a Basalt rick formation. It is an extremely popular tourist attraction.



 Back to the Hilton and an early night for all.

Day 6

Day 6 morning brought more havoc to the men's side. Barry Lynne skip of 4's and 3's had been hit by the dreaded flu. He joins the singles ( Brain Lockyer) as the team sickies.The fours had to be changed around with all players being promoted up 1 spot and team manager Barry Knapton playing his first game for Australia as a lead. He will also lead in the triples in the afternoon.
The game started well with the Aussies winning the first end but the lead was short lived as once again long ends were played and the Scots went into overdrive. End score 28-11. The singles didn't go much better with the flu still hanging onto to Brian 3-21.
The ladies had 2 nail biting games with Diane Reddick coming from behind to win 21-20. That is 2 games in 2 days Dianna has won by 1 shot, today she played against an up and coming 18 yr old Scot.. The Ladies fours was even closer. Having lead all day, they gave up the lead on the third last end. Trailing by 2 the Aussies scored 1 on the second last end.
On the last end Lead Robyn Larkin put her second shot 15 cm from the jack, As the head developed no one was able to get closer and a draw was the result. This keeps the ladies well in contention for medals.
The afternoon saw both the men's pairs and triples play out an entertaining and closely fought game. Both tried unsuccessfully to un-seat the Scots teams however their Scots class stood out with 18-14 wins in the pairs and 19-10 in triples.
The ladies had mixed fortunes with the pairs going down 17-7 and the triples continue their winning way with a convincing 29-7 win. The triples only need 1 more win to go undefeated throughout the championship.
Tomorrow is a rest day and everyone is off to the beautiful country-side and on Monday both the ladies and the men's have a bye. Tuesday sees the last competition day with the Aussie battling it out with the kiwis, just like the rugby.

Aussie versus the English in singles

A

The Scots Fours

 The Welsh pairs

Northern Ireland Pairs

 The Republic of Ireland Triples

The Team

Day 5 Bowls

Once again an early start, breakfast by 7:30 on the bus at 7:45. Weather was cool around 11 degrees with a max of 13, but no rain,  Light winds on the back green and fairly strong winds on the front green.. However, the Aussie Uniform kept everyone warm.

Our opposition today was Wales.The Aussie ladies again proved to be a powerful force with wins (21 to 20) singles and fours 24-17. Our men's singles was a struggle and couldn't find any rhythm, going down 12-21. The fours also started poorly being 0-14 after 9 ends. But finally found their rhythm a little too late and were defeated 17-20.

The afternoon had the ladies continue their dominance, with scores for the triples 25-6  and the pairs 18-14.

The men had a massive tussle in both the pairs and triples. The pairs went down to the wire being all square with 1 end to go. The Welsh team were excited and giving each other high fives as they held 4 shots with 1 Australian bowl to come. Ken Read then calmly got on the mat and delivered his last bowl and drew within 30cm to gain the shot. Aussie team swarmed the green to celebrate the victory.

The triples was also a close encounter but defeat was snatched from the jaws of victory with a 7-14 result..

At the end of the day the ladies have only lost 2 matches in 3 days while the men struggle with only 2 wins in 2 days.

Tomorrow the Aussies will have a battle against Scotland which is well prepared for these games as they have had plenty of practice on these types of green and a sponsorship of over $30,000 for the team. The Aussies who are predominately self funded will certainly be given the tag of "the underdog".

Andrew Owens plays for the English deaf team.. He is easily spotted around the club by his beautiful companion, Ellie, the hearing dog.  Ellie is seen with her work jacket and harness on. when she is in working mode. However once the jacket and harness come off Ellie becomes a playful and fun loving dog, jumping up and down and running around like any other lab.

Funny Irish story.
During a game a bowl was close to the boundary. The umpire was called.
No mirror or scope was used, the lady umpire had a roll of twine which she placed at one end of the rink and walked to the other placed the twine against the rink marker. It certainly was effective.

Day 3 Results and Day 4 Belfast City Hall tour

Day 4 is a rest day and all players had an invitation to visit Belfast City Hall where everyone met the Belfast Mayor. Then  in the afternoon players and supporters choose to do a sight seeing tour of either the Titanic Museum or Crumlin Road Gaol.

At the City Hall Robyn Larkin presented the Mayor with a wooden jigsaw of a kangaroo.

The City Hall is steeped in tradition having been partially destroyed in World War 2, and was rebuilt. It is beautiful inside.

Tomorrow the Aussies are up against Wales and then Scotland on Sunday. A bye on Monday for both the Ladies and Men's teams and then on Tuesday the final day of competition where both ladies and men 's teams play New Zealand.

CLASSIFIED RESULT of Third Day

INTERNATIONAL DEAF LAWN BOWLS FEDERATION7th International Deaf Lawn Bowls Championships at Belfast, 2015Results for 3rd Day on 2nd September 2015Men’s Singles
Northern Ireland def Australia 21 – 11
England def Rep of Ireland 21 – 10
Scotland def Wales 21 – 17
Fours
Northern Ireland def Australia 19 – 13
Rep of Ireland def England 16 – 12
Scotland def Wales 18 – 13
Pairs
Northern Ireland def Australia 21 – 9
England def Rep of Ireland 34 - 15
Scotland def Wales 26 - 14
Triples
Australia def Northern Ireland 13 – 9
England def Rep of Ireland 15 - 11
Wales def Scotland 18 - 8
INTERNATIONAL DEAF LAWN BOWLS FEDERATION
7th International Deaf Lawn Bowls Championships at Belfast, 2015
Results for 3rd Day on 2nd September 2015
Women’s Singles
Northern Ireland def Australia 21 – 2
Scotland def Wales 21 – 9
Fours
Australia def Northern Ireland 29 – 8
Wales def Scotland 16 – 15
Pairs
Australia def Northern Ireland 24 – 13
Scotland def Wales 33 - 10
Triples
Australia def Northern Ireland 24 – 12
New Zealand def Scotland 19 - 8

Men's
NIR 18 (+110)
ENG 18 (+94)
SCO 14 (+74)
AUS 9 (-32)WAL 7 (-2)NZL 3 (-72)IRL 3 (-172)

Women's
SCO 12 (+83)
AUS 12 (+30)
WAL 9 (-16)
ENG 8 (+13)
NIR 4 (-52)
NZL 3 (-67)
Total
SCO 26 (+157)
ENG 26 (+107)
NIR 22 (+58)
AUS 21 (-2)
WAL 16 (-18)
NZL 6 (-139)
IRE 3 (-172)

Day 3 resultsI

3rd Days of League

Day 3 competition

Day 3 and on arrival to the club the wind and rain looked like it was going to set in for the day. However it lasted for only a short while, but the cold certainly did settle in.
Day 3 draw saw the Aussies coming up against the highly fancied home team of Northern Ireland.The ladies started the day well, with an easy win in the fours but the singles result was just one of those day when nothing went right. So far in the competition, the results for the ladies singles and fours is 1 win and 1 loss for both.

 It seems that if you get the weight and line early you can win however lose it and the scores can easily blow out. The men's singles once again proved a difficult task and the result has meant that Australia has 1 win and 2 losses after 3 games.

 The men's fours again started off poorly as the the home played ditch to ditch and were very impressive, but the Aussies with their aggressive nature came back and won the last 5 ends to lose by 6 shots. Finally it seems that the team is starting to understand the green.
Each day the playing direction of the greens are turned 90 degrees and the men's and ladies competition swaps greens in the afternoon.
So the afternoon started with the ladies continuing their dominance with good wins in both the pairs and triples.
The men pairs and triples also proved again to be a hard fought out battle,
  The pairs came up against a formidable combination and were in the game early but slowly the Irish started to dominated.
The triples had a tight battle all day, with the Aussies holding a slender lead for most of the game, until the 10th end with the scores level. A wayward shot by the Irish skip caused havoc in the head with result being 1 shot to Ireland. With 5 seconds Barry Lynne played a masterful shot to take out the bowl and make 5. The 4 remaining ends were nail biting as the Aussies held good numbers only to be outdone by a mixture of brilliant bowling and again some wayward bowls giving the Irish the perfect conversions. The last end saw the Aussies with a 2 shot lead and holding 2 on the last crossover. The skips did not change the end and so the Aussies didn't have to play their last end.
The triples competition is very close with a number of teams including Australia with 2 wins and 1 loss.
Tomorrow is a rest day and the teams visit city hall to meet the Belfast Mayor. Then it is off to see the Titanic museum.

Day 2 competition

The day started out as usual. Breakfast and then boarding the bus at 7:45 am. An interesting trip to club as the road the bus travelled along divided the catholic and protestant areas. You could see the protestant areas by the union jack flags on poles and the high wire fences.
The ladies team had their first game against England.
The team comprises

Dianne Reddick.
Plays at Corinda Queensland
Bowls. Henselite standard

1st time player for Australia
Singles Result  21- 17

Pairs
Robyn Larkin
Club:Ocean Grove  Victoria
Bowls Drakes Pride Professional
 Representative for 3 times international
Gail Dellar
Club: Mooloolaba
Bowls Taylor Vectors
1st time representative
Pairs result :Won 19-15

Triples
Lead Dianne Reddick
3rd Maureen Prudden
Skip Janet Hogan
Maureen Prudden
Club Seymour
2nd International
Bowls Dreamline
Janet Hogan
Bowls Taylor Ace
1st International.
Won 18-15

Fours
Lead : Robyn Larkin
2nd Maureen Prudden
3rd Gail Dellar
skip Janet HOgan
Lost 7-22













The day started with great anticipation. The greens were running in an East West configuration as compared to North South the day before. No team had practiced East West.

The ditches are quite unusual. Not your sand based as in Australia.

Yes they are river pebbles.

 Once again the greens were running around the 8-9 seconds. However they seem to take more grass than would expect  which certainly confused the Aussies.
The bowls was a day to forget for the men but a day the ladies rallied. The ladies having been soundly beaten in the fours came out in the afternoon and won both the triples and the pairs. This added to the singles win and gave them a 3 wins 1 loss record against a side that won well the day before.
The men had a day to forget. In the morning both the singles and fours got off to a terrible start as they could not come too terms with the slow green and an opposition that loved and played like machines on the long ends. 
The afternoon didn't fare any better, however the men were very competitive well into the game, only again to have a couple of bad ends which gave the opposition the confidence to run away with a win.
Men 0 wins today.
Interesting call.
Men's triples. Aussie team brought mat right up to minimum. Threw jack cm short( 1 of 5 measurements so far in competition and all have been less than 5 cm short). English team threw jack into ditch. Jack placed at 2 m length. Aussie team puts mat behind minimum length marker. Oppositon skip calls for umpire and measures length, Aussies were bemused.
Also no line markings so there is always a lengthy ritual to get the mat aligned properly.
 To place the jack on the 2m T marker,  the teams have to get a 2m stick on the bank and place it against the wall..