The finals of these two women’s District Bowls Championships were decided on Tuesday March 9. Triumphant were Maclean in the Opens and Grafton District Services in the Seniors.
The Maclean team skipped by Callie Causley, with Fiona Butcher-Stewart third, Lee Rae second and newcomer, Rhoda Pedrama lead, showed their class throughout all rounds of this competition, and went on to defeat Red Rock in the final at Iluka. In the final the Maclean ladies played with confidence and precision, and despite Red Rock’s best efforts, were never headed on the scoreboard. In a relatively low scoring game, the consistency of their game saw them steadily build to lead 13-6 on the 13th end.
Red Rock skip Zoe Ferrington then lifted her team of lead Deb Guy, second Polly Stichbury and third Andrea Rudd and they staged a fight back, gradually reducing the lead to just one shot, 13-12, on the 18th. But the Maclean team steadied and eked out a single shot on each of the three final ends to take home the Championship. The semi-finals of the Open Fours were played in the morning prior to the final.
The first resulted in a strong win, 25-8 for Callie’s team over Gilly Wakefield, Sue Pye, Maryanne Jenner and Margaret Gosper of Iluka. The second was a hard fought 20-16 win by Red Rock over Yamba’s Julie Coulter, Helen Atkinson, Kaye Mason and Wendy Ballantyne. On the 20th end, Red Rock hit the front for the first time since the opening end of the game and finished over the top of their opponents.
The Senior Fours final played the same day in Yamba, was another of those games where one team streaks away to what seems like an invincible lead, only for their opposition to come storming home. The very experienced Grafton District Services team of Bev Murray (skip) Annette Williams (second) Dawn Lawson (third) and Jo Pugh (lead) sprang to a strong 11-0 lead after just three ends against Yamba’s Chris Cole (skip) Joan Scadden (third) Ruth Fletcher (second) and Ros Moore (lead).
Bev’s team stretched this to 16-3 before the Yamba ladies started their comeback, restricting their opposition to just 2 shots while they scored 14, to see the score 18-17 to GDS on 15 ends. But the GDS team drew on their experience in tight situations, steadied their game and took 2 on the next, then Yamba managed a single to put the game in the balance, 20-18 to GDS with one end to play. To their credit, Bev’s team was equal to the task, takin 1 and running out very worthy 21-18 winners in a terrific battle.
Congratulations to all participants in both the Fours Championships, but especially to Callie’s and Bev’s teams for taking out the titles.
Next up is the Triples Championship at Grafton District Services set down to start on Tuesday March 16.
Image: contributed
Senior Fours finalists (l-r) J Pugh, D Lawson, A Williams, B Murray (GDS winners) and C Cole, J Scadden, R Fletcher, R Moore (Yamba runners up).
Open Fours finalists (l-r) C Causley, F Butcher-Stewart, L Rae, R Pedrama (Maclean winners) and D Guy, P Stichbury, A Rudd, Z Ferrington (Red Rock runners up )