Maitland City’s Eric Ryan takes little convincing that good things come in threes.
The 53-year-old has just wrapped up his third straight triples crown following Sunday’s Hunter District Bowling Association final.
“I don’t know what it is,” Ryan said.
“I’ve just been really lucky in the triples recently.”
And it has been a trio of combinations that has got the skip there on each
occasion.
Ryan was representing East Maitland when he took the Hunter title in 2010 (Ben Brown and Mark Wheatley) and 2011 (Wheatley and Paul Ryan) while this time around it was with Maitland City clubmates Haydn Bojkowski and Wayne Lambourne.
On the weekend Maitland City actually accounted for East Maitland, with a team of Ken Wells, Matt Norris and Ben Golledge, by a score of 27-18 at Paxton Bowling Club.
“It was a strong win but we had to work hard for it because they kept at us the whole time,” Ryan said.
“The boys played well in front of me and full credit to them.”
This victory comes on the back of district fours win for Ryan earlier in the year, giving the Nulkaba resident two chances of going through to October’s state championships at Soldiers Point.
Zone title play-offs will be held in the Upper Hunter in July (23-24).
Ryan has also put his name down for the Australian Indoor Championship qualifiers, which will be conducted at Tweed Heads on the June long weekend.
In other news, 2011 Australian female bowler of the year Natasha Van Eldick was named in the NSW team yesterday to take on Queensland in this year’s Ashes series.
Van Eldick, a nominee for 2012 Maitland Sportsperson of the Year, was one of 10 players selected in the squad to contest the annual series, which will be held at Taren Point Bowling Club in June (12-14).
Still on women’s bowls and Van Eldick (Raymond Terrace) will be joined by Maitland City’s Heidi Mungoven as two of the top 15 qualifiers from NSW to participate at the Australian Indoor Championships at Tweed Heads in August.
The pair moved through to the national titles following preliminary rounds played at Warilla on the weekend.
HUNTER DISTRICT BOWLING
ASSOCIATION
Championship winners
Singles: Brodie Turner (Kurri Kurri)
Pairs: Nathan Dawson, Aaron Appleby (Kurri Kurri)
Triples: Wayne Lambourne, Haydn Bojkowski, Eric Ryan (Maitland City)
Fours: Damien Baily, Chris Wilkinson, Haydn Bojkowski, Eric Ryan (Maitland City)