Bulow to Don QLD Maroon in July

Seventeen-year-old Cooper Bulow is elated to have received a call-up to the state’s Under-21 team to represent Queensland at the National Senior, Youth and Para Championships at Goulburn, New South Wales early in July.

Bulow is an interesting story in the sport. The Rockhampton Association first became aware of him a few years ago at the CQ regional competition of the Queensland Schools Championships when he represented the Gladstone’s Faith Baptist Christian School.

From there he attended coaching and practice sessions at the local club when he was able to and there after he relocated to Rocky and was able to attend these opportunities on a regular basis. As a result of this relocation, last year he represented the Rocky Sate High School at that edition of the Q-Schools and intends to do the same this year on 12 June at the Leichhardt Park Centre.

Under the constant guidance of the club’s head coach, Pam Clarke and fairly regular practice partners in Matthew Pettett and Judd Carr, Bulow has continued to demonstrate improvement to the extent that earlier this year he got a start in the weekly first division fixtures. Bulow has acquitted himself quite well in this adult-dominated and very experienced environment and to his credit has registered a few very good victories.  Probably just as important, he has been extremely competitive on all his assignments in both singles and doubles matches and has gained plenty of respect from these more seasoned opponents.

Bulow represented Rockhampton at the Queensland Junior Championships during April at Moreton Bay along with team-mate Tom Tonkin in the Under-19 competition and he returned some solid results. His game has improved since then and being selected for the state at these nationals in the higher age group is a challenge he will no doubt take head-on and all indications are that he will return home a more accomplished player from the experience he will gain. In the last round of top-grade fixtures Bulow managed to take a set from Joel Coughlan, but his opponent was not hitting at one hundred per-cent, however he then took down Glen McDonald over four close sets after featuring quite consistently in the doubles tie that he and Dane Coughlan lost 13-11 in the decider.

The second division fixtures hosted some very narrow finishes and Chris Leitner’s narrow victory over the improving Jeff Jordan was one of the features. Leitner won 14-12 in the deciding fifth game after being behind by two games to one earlier-on. Leitner won the fourth game 11-9 to return from his troubled situation. Joe Clifton wound the clock back a few years when pitted against Geoff Geddes but narrowly failed to create a season-defining moment. Whilst the predominant defender won the opening two games 12-10 and 11- 8 he went down in the remaining games to 6,9 and 7 points. In another epic battle Oliver Wright prevailed over the tricky game of veteran stager Helga Leitner 11-9, 11-6, 5-11, 8-11, 11-8. It is evident the Wright along with a few other late-bloomers in the sport can benefit from playing against the likes of this opponent, who is able to play the slow game with the use of pimpled-rubber, as they contest the busy state tournament circuit where they encounter plenty of different styles.