BHBR’s Jill Hopper, Deb Gorin & Michelle Tait advance to 2023 Victorian Open Triples Final at Traralgon
BHBR’s Jill Hopper & Debbie Gorin (Victoria) and Michelle Tait (BMS) have advanced to the final of the 2023 Victorian Open Triples on Saturday, 1st April 2023 at Traralgon Bowling Club.
Jill, Debbie & Michelle won a thrilling semi final at Traralgon by one shot against Maddison Jacobs (Ocean Grove), Chloe Collins (Trevallyn) and Amity Bickley in a match that required an extra end to find the winner.
The final scoreline was 16-15 in favour of the Ballarat team and Victoria’s Deb Gorin said all three were excited to be playing in a Victorian Open Triples final.
“I can’t believe it,” Deb said.
“We are so proud of the way we bowled and making it the final and we are so tired because we never had a bye in the morning and it was three tough games today.”
“Winning the semi final against quality bowlers is super and now we have to work out how to get back for the final on Saturday because we were ready to go home on Thursday.”
“We all played well together over the two days and Michelle was a great skip and it’s just so exciting to be in a Victorian Open final.”
Sectional Play
Jill, Deb and Michelle played their Section 8 sectional matches on Sunday, 26th March at Morwell Bowling Club.
In Round 1, the trio defeated Moorabbin’s Hayley Peters, Anita Sleight and Tess Vawser by 6 shots, winning 16-10, before scoring a one shot victory against Sale’s Jody Corrigan, Julie Simic and Janelle Abraham in Round 2.
They finished top of Section 8 following a 16-13 win over Annette McCormick (Bundoora RSL), Polly Major (Phillip Island) and Claire Smyth (Hampton) in Round 3.
>>> 2023 Victorian Open Triples Sectional results here
Finals Series
In Round 1 of the Finals Series played on Monday, 27th March at Tralagon Bowling Club, the Jill, Deb & Michelle scored another thrilling one-shot victory defeating City Memorial’s Julie Shiels, Adele Sayer and Stephanie Hunt 16-15.
In their Quarter Final they faced Murrumbeena Park’s Marian Lister, Melanie Allen and Jessica Alvaro scoring a comfortable 18-8 victory to advance to the Semi Final.
>>> 2023 Victorian Open Triples Finals results here
FINAL
Their opponents in the final are highly rated bowlers Sophie Kurzman (Club Sunbury), Kate Argent-Bowden (Angaston) and Tristania Doolan (MCC) who cut a swathe through their side of the draw with some outstanding bowling.
Sophie Kurzman is well known around the Ballarat district as a former City Oval bowler back in her much younger days before heading to Club Sunbury Bowling Club to play in their top division.
Sophie represented Victoria in the Under-18 team and is currently part of the Victorian state team and destined for much bigger things.
Her teammates, Kate and Tris are quality bowlers at the highest level, and they will provide tough opposition for the BHBR trio on Saturday.
The final will be streamed on the Bowls Victoria Facebook page and good luck to Jill, Deb and Michelle on Saturday.