FORMER Shoalhaven Heads lawn bowler Karen Murphy has continued her great run of success, this time being part of the Australian team which won the inaugural $30,000 Perth International.
Following on from her two titles at the Australian Open in the pairs and triples, Murphy who now bowls for Cabramatta, has teamed up with Coolum Beach’s Robbie Thompson, South Tweed’s Kelsey Cottrell and St Johns’ Leif Selby to claim the title.
The four-nation bowls tournament was staged at Mosman Park with the Aussies taking on Scotland, England and Malaysia.
Each match included men’s and women’s singles, men’s and women’s pairs, mixed pairs and mixed triples.
World number five Selby clinched the title for Australia with a pressure laden final round victory against England’s Merv King.
Representing Australia for the first time since 2007, the reigning World Champion of Champions, who now appears destined to pull on the green and gold for Australia at next year’s Commonwealth Games, showed nerves of steel down the stretch to clinch the deciding game for the host nation.
Leading into the final encounter, Australia was level on points with Scotland, but trailing the UK powerhouse on set difference.
“It’s a great honour to be selected for Australia in any event, but a four-nation tournament against the powerful nations of Malaysia, England and Scotland is unbelievable,” Selby said.
“Karen, Thommo and Kelsey were such good fun to play with and we really grew together over the eight days we were here.
“We really believed in one another and trusted one another and we came out and did the job.”
Earlier Thompson and Murphy kept Australia’s hopes alive with a breathtaking tie-break victory in the mixed pairs before Cottrell did likewise against World Championship gold medallist Amy Monkhouse in the women’s singles.
But it was Murphy who delivered the winning bowl in the mixed pairs for a thrilling tie-breaking set win 8-5, 7-10, 4-3.
Melmore and Walton claimed the two ends of the extra set, but Murphy, who had the last bowl of the third and final end, slipped a fourth bowl into the head to give Australia the win.
Murphy was jubilant after her final-end bomb got the victory.
“It was a huge end, three down going into the final end of the tie-break against England, but Robbie set the platform for me,” she said.
“We were due for a bit of luck. We thought we were playing well enough; we just had to be patient.
“It was really important we won the rubber, sure we didn’t win it in straight sets, but I think that gave Kelsey a lot of confidence going into the singles match because there was not as much pressure for her to win.”
Australia finished the competition on 26 points, two clear of Scotland, while England (12) and Malaysia (10) rounded out the minor placings.
The Aussies as a team won 13 from 18 games.
Murphy again donned the green and gold of Australia over the weekend in the Trans Tasman test series against New Zealand in Brisbane.
It is the 31st edition of the annual test series, but unfortunately Australia’s vice-like grip on the Trans Tasman test series is over after the Black Jacks claimed the overall trophy for the first time in three years.
With the series going down to the wire, Australia, the world’s number one ranked women’s team, completed a clean sweep of its series with the Black Jacks to give the host nation some hope, but the Kiwis refused to be deterred.
Following three nail-biting days, the Black Jacks completed their own clean sweep in the men’s competition, forcing a countback on matches with the visitors prevailing 13.5 to 10.5.
As a result, the revered overall Trans Tasman trophy will cross the ditch for the first time since 2006 and just the fourth time during the 13 occasions it has been contested.
Staged over three enthralling days, the event featured the best Australia and New Zealand has to offer, as well as an under-25 development series and an under-18 competition.
Murphy featured in the Australian team alongside Lynsey Armitage, Julie Keegan, Claire Duke and Sharyn Renshaw.
Murphy won the pairs with Armitage 15-19 and then skippered the fours team to a 15-13 win.
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