More photos from Gold Greek Station, ACT

How to hold a sheep without getting kicked ...

In the woolshed ...

Lunch is about to be served ... the roaring open fire was a welcome respite from Canberra's wintery cold.  Did we mention that lunch was brilliant?

Thanks to Anna Peters for these pictures.

Nationals medal winners

More than 400 bowlers competed in the National Disability Championship in Canberra last week - competition was robust, and many records were established!

Hornsby Rockets bowlers each bowled in two series (three games) of each singles, doubles and teams events (that's a total between 180 and 390 balls for each bowler), and our five representatives in the NSW State team had an additional day of bowling, adding significantly to their totals!

Karina Peters leaving the presentation area after receiving her silver medal

Medals were presented at AMF Tuggeranong on Saturday morning. The final tally for Hornsby Rockets bowlers was:

Men's B grade teams:
Rockets 9, Ben Barber; Tim Wilson; Kelvin Abela won bronze with 1354 pins

Men's D grade singles:
Warren Seymour won gold with 372 pins

Women's D grade singles:
Amy McFadden won gold with 330 pins
Amy McFadden won silver with 323 pins (equal with Rebecca Readshaw)
Georgette DuPille won bronze with 320 pins

All events, women's B grade:
Karina Peters won silver with 1283 pins

All events, men's A grade:
Adam Mandarano won bronze with 1519 pins

All events, men's C grade:
Natham Constable won bronze with 1209 pins

All events, men's D grade:
Warren Seymour won gold with 1087 pins

In addition, all of our NSW State team bowlers brought home a silver medal.

Congratulations to all our medallists.

Amy McFadden and Georgie DuPille with their medals

Every bowler's scores and ranking for every game/series in the Championship is now available from the Tenpin Bowling Australia website, here. You can see that some of our bowlers only just missed a medal in some events. Well done all.

Last day of bowling at the Nationals

Last day of bowling for the Hornsby Rockets today, teams this morning, doubles this afternoon. Another good day of bowling, with many over-average performances and special moments, including:

• Karina Peters opened in great style with a four bagger (four stikes in a row) in the very first game. 
• Tim Wilson bowled 5 strikes and 3 spares for a personal best game score of 196.
• Kelvin Abela included a four bagger in his personal best score of 161.
• Natham Constable bowled a Turkey to close a game with a score of 137.
• Ben Barber bowled 8 spares and one strike in a single game, scoring 177 (his average is 129).
• Adam Mandarano bowled a four bagger.

At dinner this evening, the bowlers thanked the Committee, parents and carers who organised our trip and their participation in the championship, and came along to support them, both at bowling during our free time.

Medals and trophies will be presented tomorrow morning, and then we will head home.

This has been the first time at the National Championships
for Hornsby Rockets Mark Lagden and Kelvin Abela

Today at the Nationals ... sheep, dogs, dinosaurs and bowling

All of the Rockets bowled this evening, in their second singles series. Tayla was thrilled to score a Turkey in her second game, where her game score was 143. Tomorrow will be a very full day with our second (and final) doubles and teams series.

Earlier in the day we visited Gold Creek Station on the outskirts of Canberra, got to know some sheep a little better than many of of had previously, saw a sheep being sheared, learned about how wool is classified, packed and sold, and we were delighted and entertained by Ned, and the very lively Digger, the resident working sheep dogs.  We had an excellent BBQ lunch at the Station ...

 ... and even had time for a visit to the National Dinosaur Museum on the way back.

NSW State teams win 2 second places

Today, both the NSW scratch team, and the NSW restricted team were placed second in their classes in the TBA interstate championship.

Congratulations to all NSW team members, including Hornsby Rockets Adam Mandarano (NSW Scratch Team); Mark Lagden, Natham Constable, Karina Peters and Candice Lundie (NSW Restricted Team). Adam scored 201in one game - his second 200+ score so far in this tournament!

Photos to follow.

Questing, free falling and touristing, not bowling ... in Canberra

We had a free day at the 2013 nationals today, so we visited Questacon, the National Science and Technology Centre ...

We tried a lot of activities and demonstrations of things scientific ...

And some of us took on the challenge of the 'Free Fall' - facing the fear, and doing it anyway!

Then we had time for a leisurely visit to Mt Ainslie to take in the panoramic views over our beautiful national capital, under a clear, sunny sky ... a much better view than when we tried it in the early morning fog a couple of days ago.

Tomorrow is State-State competition day ... good luck to Hornsby Rockets, Karina Peters, Candice Lundie, Natham Constable, Mark Lagden and Adam Mandarano who will be bowling for NSW.

Nationals: Day 1 for Hornsby Rockets

Adam was very pleased with
his 215 game on Sunday!

Here we are in Canberra, at the Nationals.  We're off to a good start (and an early one at 8.00 am on Sunday!), with lots of good bowling, and more to come. It's a bit cold and foggy on these winter Canberra mornings.

Tim Wilson was thrilled to score his first four bagger (four strikes in a row) for some years, and Adam Mandarano continued his recent sparkling good form, scoring  six (yes, six!) strikes in a row to round out a game score of 215!

Lots of other strikes and above average scores were bowled during our first day ... keep up the good work guys, and enjoy the competition.

We bowl again this afternoon, so wish us luck!

• National Disabilities Championship now underway in Canberra, TBA, 8th June 2013

• National Disabled Ten-Pin Bowling Championships on ABC News ACT, Saturday 8th June 2013

We're off to the 2013 Australian National Disability Championships!

Twenty Hornsby Rockets bowlers are heading off to Canberra tomorrow to compete in the 25th National Disability Championship.

They will each bowl 2 series of singles, doubles and teams, and five bowlers will also bowl for NSW in the interstate championship. The championship runs over a week,and we will be back late next Saturday.

Good luck and good bowling to:
Declan O'Connor; Warren Seymour; Natham Constable (State Team); David Hunter; Mark Milner; Mark Lagden (State Team); Adam Mandarano (State Team); Candice Lundie (State Team); Karina Peters (State Team); Amy McFadden; Angela Moxham; Nick Marsionis; Stephen Smith; Tim Wilson; Georgie DuPille; Emma Crompton; Emma Matthews; Kelvin Abela; Tayla Walley; Ben Barber

And look who features on the TBA web page about this event:

Meantime, there will be no bowling this Saturday, 8th June (because of the long weekend), and regular bowling will resume next Saturday (15th) under the supervision of Committee members Maggie DuPille ad David Orr.