Joel jubilant at bowls champs
MACCABI veteran Phillip Joel was named the winner of the recent NSW Jewish State Singles Lawn Bowls Championship event at Double Bay Bowling Club.
MACCABI veteran Phillip Joel was named the winner of the recent NSW Jewish State Singles Lawn Bowls Championship event at Double Bay Bowling Club.
“I’m absolutely delighted, it was a really good win,” Joel told The AJN.
“It’s a lot of hard work paying off and the competition in the final four was very stiff.
“I’ve only been playing bowls for about six years, four of them with Maccabi, but I’m probably playing the best bowls I’ve ever played.”
Joel, 51, toppled fellow finalists Michael Becker, Joe Morris and Les Brem in a hotly contested round-robin playoff to take the title and the prize money.
Becker came in second place, with Brem placing third and Morris fourth.
“Between the other guys, they’d knocked out the past winner and the winner before him,” Joel said.
“They were strong competitors. Some of these guys have been playing for 30 years and are at the top of their game still after being around for a long time, but that means there’s always an opportunity for someone else to come in and win.”
And with the Maccabiah Games selection coming up in the next month, Joel is raring to take his form into the trials to earn a spot on the team.
“At the moment I’m working hard towards playing in those trials in Melbourne, and hopefully going to Israel,” Joel said.
“I believe my form is good enough to make it, but it’s not up to me, it’s up to the selectors, so I hope they are seeing the same.”
Another Jewish lawn bowler has also produced an outstanding effort on the greens, with Sam Ginges progressing through to the next round of the Double Bay Handicap Singles competition, after a surprise win over the highly credentialled Gerald Weinberg.
Ginges, who is a number-five pennant player, produced outstanding and consistent bowls to defeat Weinberg, who is a number-one pennant and Zone representative bowler.
AJN Staff
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