New Australian Open singles champion Aaron Teys credits extra training as the catalyst to his career-best form which continued with winning the blue-ribbon Illawarra Open Singles title.
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Teys beat Warilla club-mate and No 1 pennant teammate Jesse Noronha 31-16 in windy, freezing conditions at Towradgi Bowling Club on Sunday.
It was Teys’ sixth win over four days of the championship and maintained an amazing run of 22 wins from his past 23 matches including the Australian Open, under 25s state singles, Illawarra Open Singles and Zone 16 representative matches.
‘‘It’s been a good few weeks for sure and since I’ve put some extra work into my game it’s been paying off,’’ Teys said.
The 21-year-old admits he wasn’t always the hardest working bowler but credits time with his world champion club-mates Leif Selby and Jeremy Henry in helping him reach his potential.
‘‘I want to be more consistent. It’s fine making good shots but you have to do it consistently and doing these extra drills and training I can already see the benefits.
‘‘I’m going to keep the extra training going and hopefully my game keeps improving. I’d love to make a state open squad and progress from there.’’
Teys is arguably the in-form bowler in Australia after beating international-class players Carl Healey, Jeremy Henry and Canadian star Ryan Bester to win the Australian Open Singles at Broadbeach BC last month.
Teys won 11 matches to win the claim the highest profile singles event in Australian bowls, with the final broadcast live on Fox Sports.
Teys then won a quarter-final and semi in the NSW under 25 State Singles before bowing out in the final and returning to Wollongong to play in the Illawarra Zone 16 Singles Championship.
Teys won six Illawarra singles matches including beating Brad Rossiter 31-20 in last Saturday’s quarter-final and then beat Jeremy Henry 31-18 in the semi-finals.
In cold, windy conditions on a green made slower by an overnight storm, Teys - who also won the 2012 Illawarra Singles - beat reigning South Pacific champ Noronha 31-16 in the final.
For Noronha it was his first Zone 16 singles final and best finish since making the semis in 2008.
‘‘I played well, but Aaron was too good today,’’ Noronha said.
‘‘Getting to my first final means a lot and I’ll get a lot of confidence out of this.’’
Noronha made a match-winning three when trailing Albion Park’s Roger Duggan 30-28 to win a memorable quarter-final and then beat defending champion Brett Pieper 31-26, after Pieper beat his Corrimal club-mate Scott Bateup 31-29 in an excellent quarter-final.
Pieper was bidding to become only the second player in more than 60 years to win three straight Illawarra Singles and had a great run making the semi-finals.
Meanwhile, Windang took out the other two Illawarra Singles titles with Rick Malley claiming a third Zone 16 Senior Singles title in five years and Paul Cable winning the President’s Reserve crown for grade 5-7 bowlers.
Malley won the State Senior Singles in 2011 and beat Dapto Citizens’ Warren Haviland 31-11 in Saturday’s final at Corrimal BC.
Cable beat club-mate Steve Sprod 31-27 in the President’s Reserve final at Towradgi to join Teys and Malley in representing Zone 16 at the state finals in October.
