AFTER a weekend of perfecting spares at a training camp in Fairfield, the Northern NSW junior tenpin bowling team is ready to rock and roll at the nationals.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The team will contest the 42nd annual President's Junior Interstate Shield from April 14 to 16 in Lidcombe, Sydney.
An elite Australian Junior Championship team event, the president's shield attracts more than 300 of the nation's best junior bowlers.
Nine teams from across the country will compete - one from each state and territory, except NSW and Queensland who will both send two teams due to their dense population.
There are six local bowlers on the 12-strong Northern NSW team.
They are Keisha Calderwood (Glendale), Alannah Dodd (Lakelands), Hayden Dover (Belmont), Jake Mitchell (Warners Bay), Josh Pelzer (New Lambton Heights), and Amy Toonen (Woodrising).
Other players from across the region are siblings Kiara and Shanita Clark (Grafton), Will Clark (Gosford), Shane Joseph (Ballina), Tristan Ross (Central Coast) and Queensland draftee Rachelle Peterson.
As a team they will play six games a day and face every team twice.
Team manager Lydia Pelzer said this made for an "intense, noisy affair".
"If you still have a voice at the end of the shield, you didn't support your team well enough," she said.
While the shield is a team event, Northern NSW players have achieved some fantastic individual results.
At the state tournament in Lidcombe in February, 16-year-old Josh Pelzer placed seventh in the Junior Masters.
Two years ago he had a handicap of 114 pins in the restricted class and since worked himself up to open level.
Shanita Clark is the current Junior Masters champion while Will Clark placed seventh in the Werribee Youth Cup last year and has bowled a perfect game.
Coach Maralyn McLeish said with these individual accolades under their belts, the team should do well at nationals.