The Clarence River District Women’s Bowling Association’s State Singles Championships were held at Grafton District Services WBC from May 9-18, with 23 ladies competing. The first two rounds were played on Tuesday May 9 with closely fought games in the first round and several of the second-round games decided on the final bowl with only one point the difference The quarter finals and semi-finals were played on Thursday May 11 with once again close matches in the quarter finals and two hard fought semi-finals with South Grafton’s Candy Nixon playing her fellow club member Jen Axon and Yamba’s Wendy Ballantyne playing Grafton District Services Jo Pugh. Jen Axon had a dream start to lead 12/3 on the eighth end with Candy staging a fight back to reach 14/10 on the 12th end but was unable to combat Jen’s consistent bowling that saw her take the game 25/11. Wendy and Jo both played excellent bowls with the lead see-sawing to 10/10 on the 14th end when Jo really found her rhythm with consistently close bowling and several great conversions to lead 22/11 on the 20th. Despite some excellent bowling from Wendy Jo went on to win 25/14. The final was set down for Tuesday 16th May and was a dour match from beginning to end with the score 7/5 to Jo on the 7th end with both girls playing consistently close bowls. Jen took the lead 13/12 on the 15th end and led 18/16 on the 22nd end and 23/20 on the 28th end with the final score 25/20. Both Jen and Jo are to be congratulated on their excellent bowling and sportsmanship Jen will now play in the regional play offs to be held in Mid North Coast District on August 2-5, venue to be announced. Shirley Woodward