North Queensland Derby

[Shadows Fall]

The inaugural North Queensland Derby was held on Sunday 1st July at Kirwan Bowl.

The tournament was the brainchild of local Townsville bowler Tony Hoffensetz, with assistance from Tyson Jones.

I will try and do justice to the format;

Round 1: Random Lane Draw with 5 bowlers on a pair. Each bowler on the pair bowls three games, the two bowlers with the highest pinfall progress to Round 2 while the other three bowlers are eliminated.

In this instance it meant that 20 bowlers progressed to round 2.

Round 2: Again a random lane draw is allocated, with four bowlers on each pair of lanes. Each bowler then bowls one game with the lowest game dropping out, then another and another until there is one person left per pair.

This leaves 5 bowlers who progress through to the step ladder final

Round 3: All 5 bowlers are on one pair, and bowl one game with the low score dropping out, then another and another until there are two bowlers left. These two then contest a two game final match.

There approximately 45 bowlers who travelled from Innisfail, Burdekin and Mackay (which was awesome) along with a strong contingent of locals.

The tournament was also well sponsored with Fastway Couriers, Pacific Coast Engineering and Kirwan Bowl providing support. This was great as it meant that the top 5 places got money, along with highest places juniors, highest 3 game series (non-qualifier), last place and lucky prize of a $280 Kirwan Proshop voucher.

The pattern laid down was a challenging version of the PBA "Cheetah" pattern and saw bowlers trying to work out the best way for them to play the condition.

At the conclusion of Round 2 the five bowlers left to contest the matchplay were Frank Nucifora, Geoff Ott, Steve Hunt, Hamish Rogers and Jarrod Langford.

Match one of the finals saw a nervous start from all bowlers with a number of opens and bad shots, before things started to heat up and once the dust had settled down it was Frank Nucifora who was the first to be eliminated.

Match two saw a slow start from Jarrod Langford who opened three of his first five frames before a strong finish saw him get past Geoff Ott with Ott finishing in 4th place.

Match three saw Rogers, Hunt and Langford going blow for blow, before a missed 10 pin in the 5th frame upset the momentum of Hunt. Langford was the next to falter, and never recovered finishing in 3rd place.

The two game final saw Steve Hunt and Hamish Rogers going neck and neck through the first game, with Hunt holding a 1 pin lead (216 to 215) lead going into game two. Hunt started strongly with a turkey however back to back opens halted his progress. After 8 frames of game two both bowlers were giving their all, with Hunt holding a slender 15 pin lead. In frame 9 Hunt threw a bad shot that left the big four and with that Rogers pounced throwing a strike in the ninth and two in the tenth to take the match 207 to 191, the series 422 to 407 and the title.

It was a great display of bowling and a well deserved win by Hamish.

I would like to thank Tony (and Danielle) and Tyson for all of the work that they put into getting the tournament up and running, I think it was an outstanding success and hopefully when people hear how good it was we might get even more next time.

Thank you to all of the sponsors who made it an even better day

Lastly thank you to all of the people who came to watch and all the eliminated bowlers who stayed to watch the final, it provided a great atmosphere and it was really great to see so many juniors watching and hopefully taking note of things (like how important sparing is

 

[GeorgeF]

Sounds like a fun event tubby, next time invite me!

 

[grumpie]

So how come Mount Isa wasn't given any details of this tournament? We have bowlers looking for tournaments here!! Now with Virgin coming to Mount Isa and offering cheap fares to Brisbane, I think most of our bowlers will skip the tournaments up north and start heading south. Sad state of affairs.

Liz

 

[Wild Turkey]

Liz,

Recently the Barrier Reef Open was held in Innisfail, I think you were the only person from Mount Isa who traveled to the tournament.

Barrier Reef's prize fund was in excess of $25000.00 and they received 1 entry from Mount Isa, do you think that bowlers from Mount Isa will travel to a tournament in Townsville for a prize fund that is equivalent to 10% of the Barrier Reef Open, Pay $50 to bowl 3 games and may just get knocked out in the first round.

Frank

 

[grumpie]

A warm fuzzy feeling has come over me with all the love in the last two posts.

Frank you are right, only one went to Innisfail this year, you are not aware of how we are starting to promote tournies here. Lets start with baby steps.
One to Innisfail, hopefully more next year
Two to Cairns, hopefully more next year
Intercity graded team only, next year a full graded team and some open.
Thats how you build a sport
As for your tourny, maybe some wish to travel to gain exposure and would this not add to your prize fund.
Not a positive way to gain entries by yourself.

We are here to promote the sport of tenpin bowling.
Yes we are looking to Brisbane to send bowlers, it's not always about winning but as it is about competing.

TBA moto Foster and promote the sport of tenpins.

It is not a hard drive to Townsville from Mount Isa. But from what I hear it seems to be a very hard drive from Townsville to Mount Isa (quoted from hearsay of a minority of Intercity bowlers).

In the end we are here to promote our sport, without this you may aswell close all centres. League bowlers are the backbone of all centres. As bowlers grow with confidence the wish to go to tournies, most starting with the smaller ones, as we all did in the begining.

Let's see our sport go forward.

Gunther Czmok

 

[grumpie]

I'm sure you have been around bowling long enough to know that a lot of times the new/inexperienced bowlers are hesitant to take the first step and have a go. It's not until somebody like myself or Gunther start getting in their ears that they decide to have a go. When I came to Mount Isa last year I spoke with Robbie Buckley and asked him to give me thumbs up on any sort of tournaments coming up in Townsville. To date, I have not had anything come through from either the bowl or the association.

I know quite a few of our bowlers have friends in Townsville and would consider bowling in a tournament like the Derby. From their point of view, it's a bit of experience and they get to catch up with friends. It's not always about the prize fund. Realistically I should have withdrawn from the Innifail Open as I was so crook and am much sicker now. However I wanted to do my bit and support the Starkey Family. Plus being an ex Innisfail girl, I guess I do have a soft spot for the town. I was supposed to have another bowler come with me but he couldn't get any time off work.

In my capacity as secretary of the association, I do what I can to get bowlers more involved. All I ask is that we be included. I am not fully aware of all the BAD history at Mount Isa but I do know some of it. In all honesty, that is in the past and I don't care.

We need to move forward, work together and promote the sport in NQ. We may all have different views but I think at the end of the day we are all wanting the same results.



Liz