New South Wales young guns storm into the Men’s Pairs semi-finals
Five of the eight players gunning for coveted Men’s Pairs title under the age of thirty. The semi finals of this year’s Men’s Pairs will be dominated by New South Welshmen, with five of eight bowlers in the semi finals hailing from the state.
Cabramatta’s young gun Nathan Pedersen continues his love affair with Gold Coast greens as he and his South Australian partner Steven Dennis impressively made their way into the semi final, defeating Shannon Gittoes and Scott De Jongh Fitzpatrick in the morning before finishing strongly to defeat former Jackaroo Shane Garvey and superstar Aron Sherriff 17-14 in their quarter final. Pedersen and Dennis are one half of the 2015 Men’s Fours champion team (with Scott Thulborn and Wayne Ruediger), a team which is still well in contention to defend their title, and both will be tough to beat for the coveted Player of the Tournament award.
They will take on veteran Ballina and former NSW guns Kris Lehfeldt and Michael Anderson, who impressively took down former Australian Jackaroo Matt Flapper and Adelaide Endurance star Max Kleinig 14-11 in the Quarter Final, having earlier taken down NSW bowlers Brian Seaman and Matt Masula in the round of 16 this morning.
In the bottom half of the draw, 2013 Super 6 singles gold medallist, former NSW and ACT representative Andrew Howie and his 23 year old ACT team mate Mac McLean (Weston Creek) powered into the semi, taking down the fancied pair of Lee Schraner and Geoff Maskell in the morning before downing the highly promising pair of 18 year olds Jayden Christie and Josh Corless in the Quarter Final 18-7. They now take on the NSW state representative pairing of Matt Miles and the current second ranked bowler in Australia Chris Herden.
After taking down Brett Dean and Glen Pitts in the morning, Herden and Miles completed a remarkable comeback in their Quarter Final against the formidable pairing of former New Zealand representative Gary Lawson and Canadian turned local gun Ryan Bester; the young New South Welshmen trailed 8-15 with four ends to go but came back to complete a remarkable 16-15 victory.
Men’s Pairs Semi Finals:
Steven Dennis (West Lakes, SA) & Nathan Pedersen (Cabramatta) vs. Michael Anderson (Ballina, NSW) & Kris Lehfeldt (Ballina, NSW)
Mac McLean (Weston Creek, ACT) & Andrew Howie (Helensvale, QLD) vs. Matt Miles (Warilla, NSW) & Chris Herden (St Johns Park, NSW)
Both Men’s Pairs semi-finals will be played tomorrow afternoon at Club Helensvale, beginning at 2:30pm with the winners to meet on Thursday at approximately 2:00pm at Broadbeach Bowls Club, with the final shown live on Fox Sports.
Click here to view the full results from today’s action.
