Wee Waa bowlers Hunter Doring and Dustyn Allen return home from state event with bronze medals

NSW Bowls’ 2021 Interzone Juniors Seven-a-Side Championships were contested in Dubbo on Wednesday and Thursday, April 7 and 8.

Wee Waa Bowling Club juniors Hunter Doring and Dustyn Allen competed at the two-day event, representing a seven-player Zone 3 Bowls squad.

The duo teamed up with West Tamworth’s Lucy Hooker and Zoe Stewart to place third in the Fours competition and help Zone 3 finish ranked fifth in the state overall out of 14 teams.

The Zone 3 Bowls team consisted of the following players:
Singles – Tim Thorning (Gunnedah Services), Pairs – Shania Bell (Inverell Sporties) and Tara Stewart (West Tamworth), Fours – Lucy Hooker (West Tamworth), Hunter Doring (Wee Waa), Dustyn Allen (Wee Waa) and Zoe Stewart (West Tamworth).

Wee Waa Bowling Club’s Brett Pillar was the team manager. He told the Wee Waa News that he was proud of the entire team and added that the Wee Waa duo represented their club and town well.

In Dustyn, Hunter, Lucy and Zoe’s three sectional matches on Wednesday, they challenged teams from Zone 6, Zone 10 and Zone 13.

The winner of that four-team pool would advance to the final four for a chance to play for the gold medal.

Zone 3 scored two nail-biting wins in its first two matches, downing Zone 6 13-12 and Zone 10 17-15.

The Wee Waa boys’ team then cruised into the final four with a 28-3 victory against Zone 13 to top the pool with a maximum six points.

Zone 3 challenged eventual champions Zone 4 Grey in the semi-final and went down 25-5. That result meant that Zone 3 progressed to the bronze medal match which it won 22-10 against Zone 15 to place third in that Fours division.

Zone 4 Grey won the gold medal match 23-10 against Zone 5.

In the Pairs division, Zone 3’s Shania Bell (Inverell Sporties) and Tara Stewart (West Tamworth) also
qualified for the final four.

The duo lost their first sectional match 18-13 against Zone 6, then defeated Zone 10 22-12 and Zone 13 25-9 in games two and three respectively.

After all sectional matches had been completed, three of the four teams in the pool had won two games each.

Zone 3 claimed top spot due to its superior margin total which was 21 having scored 60 shots while conceding just 39.

Zone 3 then lost its semi-final 31-7 against Zone 4 grey to progress to the bronze medal match in which it was edged out 16-15 by Zone 12.

Zone 5 downed Zone 4 Grey 21-15 in the decider.

In the Singles competition, Zone 3’s Tim Thorning started the tournament in style with a 21-3 victory in the first sectional round against Zone 6.

He then went down 21-20 in a close contest against Zone 10 in round two before losing 21-9 against Zone 13 in round three.

That saw him place third in the section and go on to compete in the ninth-14th place playoff. He went down 21-13 against Zone 2 and 21-16 against Zone 5 to placed 12th out of 14 bowlers.