2025 TBA Australian Junior Masters Preview 🎳
By Matt Stevens
📍 Wyncity Keon Park – Tuesday, 8 April 2025
🎳 First nationally ranked event for the TBA Junior Division in 2025
The 2025 TBA Junior National Ranked Event Series officially kicks off today with the Australian Junior Masters, hosted at Wyncity Keon Park in Victoria.
The showcase individual event of the TBA National Junior Championships, the Master’s, is the first of four national junior ranked events scheduled in 2025. This year marks the 54th edition of the prestigious tournament, which began in 1971 at St Leonard’s, NSW, during the inaugural Junior National Championships.
🧮 How They Qualified
Qualification concluded with the final Championship squads on Sunday afternoon. The top 24 bowlers in both the male and female divisions have now progressed to Stage 1, which includes the automatic qualifiers from each state and territories who were crowned Junior Masters representatives of their respective regions.
A scratch event, the Australian Junior Masters is open to all junior TBA members who completed an All-Events entry in the Championship. Their highest three-game series was used as their official qualifying score.
👑 Girls Division – A New Champion to Be Crowned
With 2024 champion Emily Hart having aged out of the division, a new name will be etched into the record books this year.
Topping the qualifying table is North Queensland’s Emily Starkey, who posted a 665 series (265, 196, 204) in her Classic Singles squad. Starkey heads a top three that includes fellow North Queenslander Emily Hinspeter (632) fresh from her Classic Cup victory and Victoria’s Summah Bennett (604).
2024 Runners-up Bella Westlake is in the hunt again this year finishing with the 13th highest qualifying score. The South Queensland state master representative for 2025 will be looking to make her move as the event gets underway in the first round.
A total of six bowlers were automatic qualifiers as they were tagged with the State/Territory Masters Representative that receives guaranteed qualification into the second stage which begins today. These are Emily Hinspeter (NQLD), Abby George (TAS), Bella Westlake (SQLD), Aleisha McGarry (NSW), Elouise Cocks (VIC), and Chloe Greenham (SA).
🎯 Boys Division – Star-Studded Field Chasing Glory
Flynn Slade (VIC) was the talk of the tournament after rolling the first and only 300 game of the Championships — the first perfect game of his young career. That performance helped secure his place as top qualifier for the Masters with a stunning 740 series.
Flynn added to his list of achievements yesterday taking out the TBA Junior Classic Cup. The 15 year old from Oz Tenpin Chirnside Park is having a dream run at this year’s championships.
Not far behind is 14-year-old Hayden Miller (NQLD), who opened the event with a 735 series that featured an incredible 296 game — just shy of perfection. Rounding out the top three is Logan Young (VIC), the 17-year-old from Horsham Lanes, who posted a 709 series in the Classic Singles.
Defending champion Lachlan Howse (QLD) returns to chase back-to-back titles. The 17-year-old from Logan City Tenpin automatically qualified through his state title but also posted a solid 630 series, placing him 14th overall.
A total of three bowlers were automatic qualifiers for the boy’s division, tagged as the State/Territory Master Representative. These were William Zaccaria (VIC), Lachlan Hembrow (NQLD), and Coby Schwetlik (SA).
🏆 Format – The Path to the Podium
The Master’s will unfold over two days, structured as follows:
🔹 Round 1 – Tuesday, 8 April
- All 24 bowlers start fresh (pinfall drops)
- 6 games bowled
- Top 16 on total pinfall progress
- Top 4 receive an automatic pass to Round 3
- Bowlers ranked 5–16 advance to Round 2
🔹 Round 2 – Tuesday, 8 April (Afternoon)
- Pinfall drops again
- Bowlers ranked 5–16 bowl another 6 games
- Top 4 from this group advance to Round 3
🔹 Round 3 – Wednesday, 9 April (Finals Day)
- The top 8 bowlers face off in a seeded elimination bracket – Top 4 from round 1, Top 4 from round 2.
- Best-of-three Games (win/loss format)
- Quarter-Finals → Semi-Finals → Grand Final
- The winners will be crowned the 54th TBA Australian Junior Masters Champions
🎉 Congratulations to all 24 male and female bowlers who qualified — an incredible achievement! Now it’s time to battle for the crown. 📊 Follow the scores live here:
Best of luck to all competitors as they chase glory in this prestigious national event! Let the Masters begin! 💪🎳
Past Champions
| 1971 | Brian Hamer (Qld) | Jeanette Baker (Vic) |
| 1972 | Peter van Kempen (NSW) | G Maloney (NSW) |
| 1973 | Peter van Kempen (NSW) | Christine Lovelace (NSW) |
| 1974 | Gary Kee (NSW) | Rhonda Zitlaff (Vic) |
| 1975 | Fred Allsopp (NSW) | Margaret Gilmour (Qld) |
| 1976 | Peter Manzo (NSW) | Trish Weir (Qld) |
| 1977 | Charlie Fenech (NSW) | Trish Weir (Qld) |
| 1978 | Craig Bollenhagen (SA) | Kristine Sommers (SA) |
| 1979 | Shane Woods (NSW) | Sue Cassell (NSW) |
| 1980 | Warren Hutt (ACT) | Judy Smythe (Qld) |
| 1981 | Robert Biviano (NSW) | Brenda Hanlon (Tas) |
| 1982 | Stephen Wimbridge (WA) | Karen Yow (NT) |
| 1983 | Jamie Carroll (SA) | Jo-Ellen Day (Qld) |
| 1984 | David Lindley (ACT) | Carol Gianotti (WA) |
| 1985 | Damien Shea (SA) | Karen Graham (SA) |
| 1986 | Russell Hinton (ACT) | Alison Woods (Qld) |
| 1987 | Andrew Drew (Qld) | Jeni Hertrick (Qld) |
| 1988 | Darren Honeysett (NSW) | Julie Jubb (MR) |
| 1989 | Peter McKinnon (SA) | Sharon McLeish (NSW) |
| 1990 | Scott Dickson (ACT) | Danielle McAdam (NSW) |
| 1991 | Anthony Foxford (NSW) | Christine Graham (NSW) |
| 1992 | David Brooker (NSW) | Cherone Gosper (NSW) |
| 1993 | David Brooker (NSW) | Rebecca O’Byrne (NSW) |
| 1994 | Jeremy Sonnenfeld | Maxine Nable (NSW) |
| 1995 | Matthew Riley (Tas) | Bianca Richards (Vic) |
| 1996 | Allan Sutton (Qld) | Joy Hayman (NSW) |
| 1997 | Jason Walsh (NSW) | Stacey Wooler (Qld) |
| 1998 | Brandon Qualischefski (Qld) | Rebecca Simpson (Qld) |
| 1999 | Christopher Warner (NSW) | Jayde Flanagan (Qld) |
| 2000 | Jason Belmonte (NSW) | Tammy Foat (Qld) |
| 2001 | Patrick Egan (NSW) | Kara Proudfoot (Qld) |
| 2002 | Matthew Sing (NSW) | Jayde Flanagan (Qld) |
| 2003 | Ben Coupland (Qld) | Bianca Flanagan (Qld) |
| 2004 | Michael McDonald (NSW) | Tracey Madden (Vic) |
| 2005 | Stephen Cowland (NSW) | Krystal King (Qld) |
| 2006 | Michael Craig (ACT) | Rachelle Flynn (Vic) |
| 2007 | Scott Johnston (NSW) | Rebecca Whiting (Vic) |
| 2008 | Scott Johnston (NSW) | Jessica Garioch (Vic) |
| 2009 | Keryn Delaney (NSW) | Sarah Heath (NSW) |
| 2010 | Adam Svensson (WA) | Chelsea Oliver (WA) |
| 2011 | Tristan Foo (NSW) | Jessica Nicholas (Tas) |
| 2012 | Jake Cromie (NSW) | Katrina Carr (Qld) |
| 2013 | Jake Otago (Qld) | Katey Furze (Qld) |
| 2014 | Elliott Batiste (Vic) | Shanita Clark (NSW) |
| 2015 | Blayne Fletcher (Qld) | Tegan Ihnativ (NSW) |
| 2016 | Jackson Botham (NSW) | Rebekah Commane (Vic) |
| 2017 | Kyle Annetts (QLD) | Rebekah Commane (Vic) |
| 2018 | Jordan Dinham (NSW) | Nikaylah Spofforth (Vic) |
| 2019 | Tarkyn Percy (SA) | Grace Fahy (VIC) |
| 2021 | Jack Colmer (QLD) | Emily Hart (SA) |
| 2022 | Ben Pettit (NZ) | Kosei McGrath-Takeji (NZ) |
| 2023 | Sam Coombs (NSW) | Shanae Key (VIC) |
| 2024 | Lachlan Howse (QLD) | Emily Hart (SA) |
