27 year-old Nevatt from Auckland is part of the first New Zealand team to compete in the high profile Rachuig tournament, the finale event in this year’s Australian National Tenpin Bowling Championships.

A perfect game in tenpin – a sport that is increasingly prominent since its athletes’ multi-medal performance at the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur – has only occurred on four previous occasions in the 41-year history of the Walter Rachuig Trophy event. .

For Nevatt, it is an achievemnet he has been aiming for since he began bowling at nine years of age. “He had to come to Australia to do it” quipped former Kiwi and now Chairperson of Tenpin Bowling Australia, Peter Coburn. “Seriously though, scoring a perfect game in the sport is a rarity similar to a hole-in-one in golf,” he added.

Darwin’s Ronald Voukolos, who captained the Australian team at the WTBA World Tenpin Teams Cup in Denmark earlier this year, bowled the first perfect game during this year’s Nationals. The following day, Morty Douglass from Kingaroy in Southern Queensland wowed spectators again when he rolled the magic 300 during a five-man teams event during the Nationals.

All three perfect-game shooters are currently competing in the Walter Rachuig Interstate teams event, a three-day mini-tournament staged under the umbrella of the National Championships. This year’s Nationals has grown to a record three-week festival of bowling, attracting more than 1,000 competitors, officials and supporters from every State and Territory in Australia, as well as New Zealand, to the North Queensland region.

At the completion of Day Two, and after 12 games, New South Wales Men's and Women's teams lead the field in both divisions of the Rachuig tournament, and are on top of the leaderboard with 117 points overall, with South Queensland second on 104.5 and Victoria and North Queensland equal third on 98 points.

Play resumes at 9am tomorrow at Kirwan Bowl for the final day's play and spectators are welcome to attend - admission is free.

Full scores and photographs from the Walter Rachuig Trophy and Nationals events completed to date can be viewed on TBA’s official website -www.tenpin.org.au.