By Bob Bourke

Ettalong Memorial Bowling Club’s superstar Aron Sherriff has a Gold Medal to add to his Silver Medal won at the 2012 World Championships at Lockleys Bowling Club, S.A.

Skipping his team of Mark Casey (3rd), Brett Wilkie (2^nd) and Wayne Ruediger (lead) in the Mens Fours, the “Australian Jackeroos” snared their Gold Medals with a convincing 22-13 victory over South Africa.

Lead Wayne Ruediger from Adelaide achieved his life-long dream of achieving a World Gold Medal on his home soil and declared, “Words can’t describe how I feel right now, I’m so happy. I never expected to be a World Champion. A year ago I didn’t think it was possible”. said Wayne.

In the semi-final thriller against the powerhouse Scottish team, Aron steered his team to an 18 shot margin before they squandered the advantage as the Scots rallied and staged a fight back to just fall short of the Australians, 23-22.

“What a game,” said National Coach Steve Glasson, “We got off to a really good start and began to run away with it, but we took our foot off and, full credit to Scotland, they fought back”.

Aron’s Silver Medal was won in the Mens Pairs on Thursday 6^th December when he led for world No2 Leif Selby in a final that saw them lose by only 5 shots to arguably the world’s best pairs team of Alex Marshall (skip) and Paul Foster (lead) representing Scotland.

With gold to Kelsey Cottrell and Rebecca Quail in the Women’s Pairs and gold also to Karen Murphy, Lynsey Armitage and Natasha Van Eldik in the Women’s Triples Australia still has two more chances of gold medals as both Leif Selby and Karen Murphy are in the finals of the Mens and Ladies Singles.

Australia wins World Championships – summary

Australia has emerged from the 2012 World Championships held at Lockleys Bowling Club, South Australia from November 24th to December 9th as the world’s top nation in lawn bowls.

Twenty seven countries contested the championships with Australia winning an impressive five of the eight Gold Medals and two from eight Silver medals.

As the most successful nation the medal haul meant Australia also won the coveted men’s Leonard Trophy and women’s Taylor Trophy.

The medal tally;

Men’s Singles - Gold Medal – Leif Selby (Aust) def Ryan Bester (Can) 21-9.

Men’s Pairs - Silver Medal – Leif Selby, Aron Sherriff (Aust) def by Scotland 18-13.

Men’s Triples - Silver Medal – Mark Casey, Brett Wilkie, Wayne Ruediger def by Scotland 13-12.

Men’s Fours - Gold Medal – Aron Sherriff, Brett Wilkie, Mark Casey, Wayne Ruediger (Aust) def South Africa 22-13.

Lady’s Singles - Gold Medal – Karen Murphy (Aust) def Val Smith (NZL & reining women’s World Champion) 21-17.

Ladies Pairs - Gold Medal – Kelsey Cottrell, Rebecca Quail (Aust) def New Zealand 16-12.

Ladies Triples - Gold Medal – Karen Murphy, Lynsey Armitage, Natasha Van Eldik def New Zealand 21-9

A tremendous effort by all of the Australian bowlers as all five members of both the Men’s and Women’s teams walk away from the championships as World Champion