LOCAL lawn bowls duo Joshua Thornton and DJ Weaver claimed their third Open Para Pairs title at this year’s Victorian State Para Championships in Kangaroo Flat last week.
The win was Thornton’s fourth Para championship and Weaver’s third, with the pair claiming all three championships in their three years as a team.
Thornton said an overseas trip might have been the only thing that had stopped the pair from claiming four titles in a row.
“That’s two in a row, but if we want to be technical it was actually our third consecutive win as pair,” he said.
“I had to go overseas during one of the championships in the last four years, which meant neither of us were competing that year.
“So we’ve actually won three in a row when given the chance to play together – I’d say we’re having a pretty good run.”
The pair had gone undefeated in their past two State Para Championships, but said they had to do it the hard way this year after an opening round loss.
A narrow two-shot loss in their first game soon made way for another dominant performance, with Thornton also battling through pain to make the finals.
“My body had been playing up throughout that last week,” he said. “It was kind of the worst that it had been, I wasn’t bending as good as I usually can which meant I wasn’t bowling as well as I could.
“I think we were both a bit off in that first game, and luckily we came good.
“We actually lost a game this time, but we were able to scrape through to the finals and now the rest is history.
“Come the semi-final and the final, we didn’t look like we were going to get beat.”
A nine-shot win over the pair from Rich River and Echuca in the semi-final put Thornton and Weaver through to their third consecutive final.
The pair then put in a dominant performance against Clayton’s Joshua Barry and Moama’s Barry Brennan in the final to win 17 shots to 4.
While the pair don different colours during Pennant season, with Weaver a part of Swan Hill Racecourse and Thornton, Murray Downs, they both thrive in the competitive championship environment.
“The competition there is strong,” Thornton said.
“There are guys who are a part of the Australian squad and people who play premier league in Melbourne.
“I think it just shows that a couple of country bumpkins from up in Swan Hill can do pretty well.”
Thornton said the mutual respect between the pair allowed them to perform to the best of their abilities, with a chance encounter bringing the two together.
“We’ve known each other for a long time now,” he said.
“We actually stumbled across each other nearly seven or eight years ago when DJ was selected to play for Victoria.
“He became my pairs partner there, back when he was only a kid, I think DJ wasn’t even 18 at that time.
“Then when I first moved up here, I told him that there was no reason that we couldn’t play together in this event.
“We seem to do quite well together, and we both have a great respect for each other.”
