Bendigo’s Amelia Bruggy and Kyneton’s Chloe Stewart retained their Australian Open lawn bowls women’s fours title on the Gold Coast this week.
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Stewart, who is now based at Broadbeach on the Gold Coast, and Bruggy, who is now based at Kingsborough in Tasmania, were joined by Victori’a Tiffany Brodie and Queensland’s Georgia White.
The quartet won a thrilling gold medal match over Australian great Karen Murphy and Ellen Ryan, Kay Moran and Julie Keegan.
The gold medal game went down to an extra end.
After Stewart had the chance to draw for game in the final regular end and missing by a whisker, the match went into a see-sawing extra end which saw both teams trade shots.
Murphy’s final bowl ricocheted and sprung the jack to leave a tight measure between her and Brodie’s bowl, ahead of Stewart’s final shot.
Stewart and her team carefully assessed the head before deciding to play the last show, with Stewart later noting that they believed they were just down.
However, Stewart’s final bowl straightened up slightly off a front bowl before removing Murphy’s bowl to secure the title.
The quartet shared a $12,000 prize for their victory.
While Stewart and Bruggy had a week to remember, Bendigo product Aaron Wilson had one to forget.
The Australian squad member was knocked out in the first round of the pairs and was beaten in the quarter-finals of the fours.
Wilson’s fours squad lost a thrilling quarter-final 14-13 to the eventual runners-up.
Wilson made it to the round of 64 in the men’s singles before being knocked out by Queensland’s Troy Somerville 21-17.
The singles title was won by South Australia’s Nathan Pedersen.