MURRAY Downs Bowls Club premiership drought-breaking captain Joshua Thornton returned to the Australian Multi-Disability Championships on the Gold Coast earlier in the month – representing Victoria in the singles, pairs and triples events.
Thornton and teammates Joshua Barry and Lucas Protopapas managed to take home victory for their state in the triples.
While that success didn’t translate to the singles competition, Thornton was still happy with his overall performance throughout the week when he spoke to The Guardian.
“The triples were the first event, so to win that was a good start, but I left one on the table in the singles,” he said.
“It was my first campaign at a big event since I didn’t get selected for the Commonwealth Games, so I wanted to go up and impress and it was great to get a win for Victoria.”
The triples victory was Thornton’s first in the event and redeemed a grand final loss with Protopapas from eight years earlier.
“It was good to get the win with those two boys,” Thornton said.
“I had never played with Josh (Barry) before, so it was good to have an opportunity to play with him as he’s one of our better players in that discipline and young Lucas (Protopapas) always fits in with everybody.”
It wasn’t all smooth sailing for the trio, with a loss in the final group match to Queensland the wakeup call they may have needed.
From that minor hiccup, they never looked back, winning the quarter final by 13 shots and the semi final by five shots, before defeating Tasmania in the grand final in a slightly tighter affair.
“There were some moments in both the semi and grand final that if one bowl went here or there, it could have been different – but the one thing I was proud of was that I played some good pressure bowls when it mattered – and that’s something I can hang my hat on at least,” Thornton said.
“We got the jump on Tassie, but with three ends to go, they began pushing back.
“Thankfully, I played a really good bowl on my last shot with a couple of ends to go to release the pressure valve.”
Unfortunately for Thornton, a semi final loss in the singles to state teammate Barry Brennan dampened a to that point thriving campaign.
Thornton headed into the contest off the back of a 13-shot win over South Australian John Swarbrick in the quarters but failed to rekindle that form against Brennan.
“I royally butchered the semi final and only just got beaten – I may not have won the final if I made it anyway, but the fact I didn’t get there was a bit frustrating,” Thornton said.
“I lacked a bit of consistency in that match, but Barry (Brennan) is capable of beating anyone, and he proved that on the day.”
A consolation prize was on offer at least for Thornton in the bronze medal match against Tasmanian David Minns, which he took with both hands.
“I won fairly convincingly against a pretty good player, so that lifted my spirits a bit,” he said.
The event signalled a new dawn for the Australian Multi-Disability Bowls Championships.
Bowls Australia ran the event for the first time after Disabilities Sports Australia had been its governing body.
Thornton believed the change was overdue and expects the tournament to look slightly different in the coming years.
“It’s been a long time coming with Bowls Australia taking over the event, and so it should be there, the national body,” he said.
“The event hasn’t changed so far, but now that Bowls Australia is running it, it will be reviewed by interested parties and like-minded people when it comes to the sport, so who knows what our national championships might look like in the future.”
It has been an up and down year for Thornton.
A long-awaited flag for Murray Downs and a relatively successful national championships were punctuated by missing out on selection for the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games.
This left Thornton feeling slightly burnt out by the time round 1 of pennant rolled around last weekend, but he is now raring to go for a big few months of bowls, with national team trials firmly on his radar.
“If you’d asked me Saturday morning if I wanted to go out and play pennant, I would have said no – which is the first time I’d have thought that in 30 years – but I still love the game, and it doesn’t take much to trigger me to come out and play well,” he said.
“I’ve got a trial in November, which will form our next national para and emerging para squads.
“The good thing is pennant has started, and there are enough state events on that I’ll be in good stead once the trial comes round.”
On the home front, Thornton has stepped down as skipper of Murray Downs this season, but he expects the reigning premiers to be even stronger this season.
“We should be round about it again – we started well on the weekend against a good side in Swan Hill Racecourse – and we’ve picked up a couple of handy players in Peter Brook and Ray Wilson, so in essence, we’ve got stronger, but we’ve still got to go out and perform,” he said.
