Sport
6 March, 2026
Nail-biting championship
INNISFAIL lawn bowler John Phillips had a thrilling one-point victory against Mossman young gun Malachy McTaggart in the final on Saturday 21 February at West Cairns Bowls Club to claim the Tropical Far North Queensland District Singles championship.
Phillips began his campaign with a narrow victory over Kevin Deegan in the quarter-final, 25 - 21. He then went on to play Shane Spina in the semi-final where he registered a nail-biting one-shot victory 25 - 24 to book his spot in the final.
In the other semi-final, McTaggart came from behind and stormed home with a 25 - 15 win over Atherton’s Ivon Spletter to earn a final berth against Phillips.
McTaggart, who is an under-25 Queensland representative, played his heart out in the final against Phillips and was unlucky to go down by one shot.
After winning last year’s district pairs, Phillips has now added his name to the district singles championship title and brought home the coveted John Newell Cup.
This year’s annual district singles championships attracted nominations from 33 bowlers from clubs across the region.
In the championship pairs final played at West Cairns Bowls Club, Gary Kriesel and Brian Fitzpatrick (skip) from the Atherton Tablelands defeated Marlin Coast’s Shayne Bettess and Stephen Pitt 18 - 12.
Last month, the championship fours final played out at West Cairns Bowls Club where the team of Michael de Vries, Sean Prinsloo, Darren Turner and Darryl Stumbles (skip) had a comfortable 25 - 15 win over Kevin Richardson, Scott Carolan, Albert Radford and Steve Kavanagh (skip).