ACJC girls keep senior bowling title

ACJC girls keep senior bowling title

SINGAPORE - Consistency was the key to success for the Anglo-Chinese Junior College (ACJC) A Division girls’ team, after they retained their Schools National title at Orchid Country Club yesterday.

Strong final placings (second, third and joint sixth) in the all-events category ensured they won the coveted trophy ahead of Raffles Institution (RI), whose bowlers were placed first, fourth, eighth and ninth.

It was a hard-fought win for the ACJC girls, as they battled tough lane conditions and strong competition from RI, who won the boys’ overall title.

Said ACJC captain Tracey Lin, 17: “Competition here was harder than at the national age-group event because of the different oiling, so we relied a lot on spares to get our points. Every spare counts.”

“On the first day (the singles event) we bowled so badly. Our coach was disappointed; he felt that our attitude and spirit wasn’t there. He gave us a pep talk and we came back stronger during the doubles.

“It was mentally draining since they split the team event over two days. We had to wait two to three minutes to bowl, but still had to keep our focus.”

The ACJC girls’ win overshadowed a superb performance by Joey Yeo, who took first place in the singles, doubles, quartet and individual all-events.

It was the first time that the national bowler from RI had completed the rare sweep since picking up the sport in her primary school days.

“It is unfortunate that we couldn’t clinch the overall title, but I guess we can look forward to doing better next year,” said the 17-year-old.

There was still joy for RI, as its boys’ team took back the overall title after losing it last year to ACJC.

The RI boys stormed to their overall title only after the penultimate day of the competition, having trailed in third place after the first day.

“We’ve been training very hard since our loss last year,” said 18-year-old RI captain Jevarn Li, who was also crowned the all-events champion.

“It felt terrible when we lost last year, and it pushed us to work harder to win this year.”

yuntingc@sph.com.sg
chingyl@sph.com.sg

This article was published on April 30 in The Straits Times.

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