Bowlers and many other patrons watched on the big screen back in the Goulburn Railway Bowling Club as Ryan showed absolute class, defeating her opponent 21 to 10.

Manager Scott Cooper said about 80 people were at the club watching Ryan’s bowling performance on the big screen.

“It was very exciting and everyone was cheering when she won,” Cooper said.

“We contacted her and her dad, who was here, suggested she stay an extra day up there to relax but Ellen and her mum wanted to get back home.

“She (Ryan) was really excited but said the win had not really sunk in.

“She was looking forward to coming home and seeing her friends and dad.”

In a phone call with the Goulburn Post Ryan said she was confident she could do better than she had in the quarter final and semi-final games that resulted in her beating the 2007 event winner, Sita Zalina Ahmad from Malaysia and then Samantha Shannahan.

“I got off to a good start against Maree Gibbs; I think after the first two ends I was four up.

“Toward the end of the game she (Gibbs) started to improve but I just concentrated on what I had to do and kept playing my own game.”

According to the Bowls Australia report on the game, Ryan jumped out to a 6-0 lead and played consistently throughout the match, dominating from start to finish.

The match was half over with Gibbs trailing 11-1 before the 58- year-old started to show the fight she is renowned for in the bowling fraternity.

However, Ryan never let up. She told reporters after the game that the rain didn’t deter her during the match.

“I’m used to the Goulburn weather where it is always raining, so this was just like back home. I knew I could nail it,” she said.

She told the Goulburn Post she was surprised by the amount of support she had received from people back in Goulburn, particularly after word got out that she had won her way into the singles final.

“I want to thank Scott Cooper and everyone at the Bowlo for all their support, she said.

“Winning the Australian Championship still hasn’t really sunk in and during the game I was just focussed on each end.

“ I am really looking forward to getting home and catching up with everybody.”

When asked about the future, Ryan said she was hoping to make the national team for the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.

She made no mention of the $16,000 prize purse she had won, preferring to focus on the Championship title itself and defending it next year.

While in Queensland, Ryan also competed in the open women’s fours, teamed with three of Australia’s most experienced players.

However they were defeated in the semifinal by four shots.

The fours team was made up of the Australian captain Lynsey Clarke, Anne Johns, Rebecca Van Asch and Ryan.

She also competed in the Women’s pairs with Maddison Fennell but they didn’t make it past the rounds.

Ryan admitted she was very proud of her achievement but still couldn’t believe the level of support she had received.

“It was just awesome,” the quiet Year 12 Goulburn High student said.

She thanked her National Training Centre coach, Gary Willis for the last three years in which he has been guiding her progress.

Scott Cooper said: “Ellen is a wonderful ambassador for bowls and the Bowlo, which she still calls her home club despite doing much of her training at Cabramatta.

“She started here playing twilight social bowls with her family and found she really liked the game and has taken it to the blue ribbon level, highlighting that bowls is no longer an old people’s game but one where the young players are taking over as our champions.”

“Ellen is still a full paid up competitive member of the Bowlo and often comes down to practice here or play.”

Ellen’s mum, Cathie said that her daughter had dreamt of being on television playing bowls and on Wednesday that dream came true.

“It was wonderful being in the stands watching and listening to the crowd reaction,” she said.

“I was thinking about Tim (Ellen’s dad) back at the club in Goulburn watching and he would not have been able to keep still.

The atmosphere there would have been electric.”

It was a very tired but overjoyed Ellen Ryan who returned home to Goulburn from the Gold Coast late last night and hopped into bed, still in her bowls uniform after achieving the title of 2015 Australian Women’s Singles Bowls Champion, hours earlier.

On Thursday, though still exhausted after the big effort on Wednesday and being inundated by congratulatory phone calls, messages and requests for interviews, Ryan attended her Goulburn High School assembly to speak briefly to her peers and teachers.

She then headed down to the Bowlo to meet some of the people there and show them her gold medal.

The trophy remains with Bowls Australia but her name which will be engraved onto it will be a reminder to every future National Open Women’s Singles Champion that Ellen Ryan is the 2015 Champion.