Sports

Yamba Women’s Major Minor Pairs semi finals

ABOVE: Gabby Freeman gets her bowl away well in the Major-Minor Semi Final. Pic: Contributed.
ABOVE: Gabby Freeman gets her bowl away well in the Major-Minor Semi Final. Pic: Contributed.
  Contrasting semi-final wins in the Major Minor Pairs last week have set up what should be a great final between two form teams. Kerry Pedder and Cathryn Atchison will play Gabby Freeman and Sonia Graham in the final which has been re-scheduled for October 8. In what became a nail biter finish, Kerry and Cathryn had to overcome a strong start by Cheryl and Denise. Both teams had good runs where they strung together a series of scoring ends to draw level at 10 all on 10 ends. From there Kerry and Cathryn played more consistent bowls to take a 5 shot lead on the 16th, but when Denise and Cheryl crafted a 3 on the penultimate end, the deficit was only 2. It a dramatic end to the game, Denise trailed the jack for 3 with her second last bowl, only to see Cathryn draw second shot with her last. Despite her best efforts, Denise was unable to get the necessary shot and she and Cheryl were gallant in defeat, going down 16-17. By contrast, Gabby Freeman and Sonia Graham had a comfortable win, bringing Jan Funnell and Monica Conlan’s run to an end in convincing style, 22-9. After the game was in the balance up to the 9th end, Gabby and Sonia powered ahead with multiples over the next 4 ends to lead 16-7, and were never headed. Gabby led with great touch and precision while Sonia was able to stymie any recovery that Jan and Monica could mount. Gabby and Sonia have shown very consistent fine form throughout this competition, and will be strong contenders in what should be a battle royal with the experienced combination of Kerry and Cathryn. Meanwhile, action aplenty in social bowls saw a good roll up on Tuesday 22nd September, and the lucky winning team was Ros Hippisley, Maria Sakac and Gloria Davis who had a win over Gwen Hoskin, Lyn Olsson and Ruthie Fletcher. Pam Conley and Judy Sinclair teamed up to snare the runners up prize with a victory over Raels McKibbin and Chris Cole, while Val Pate and Judy Abbott had a narrow win over the lucky Consolation prize winners, Sandy Owen and Judy Button. Other results saw three very close match ups with K Schubert/F Reeves/C Casement defeating Glenda Davis/C Beard/J Scadden; G Hall/K Mason downing J Miller/R Dickson and V Terry/M Thompson prevailed over H Atkinson/I Neill. Close results were again the order of the day on Thursday 24th, with the lucky Winners Prize going to Jill Miller, Val Pate and Robyn McPherson who defeated Bev Grimes, Bev Lawson and Chris Cole by just 3 shots, and most other games with lesser margins. In a real battle, R McKibbin/J Pearson/J Sinclair won on a countback when they had drawn 15-all with J Scobie/ M Wall/ J Button while H Scott/C Deveney/R Fletcher narrowly won over C Beard/P Conley/K Pedder. But Rink 4 proved the one to be on, with the lucky runners up winners Gwen Hoskin, Maria Sakac and Denise Burey downing lucky Consolation winners Sandy Owen, Helen Atkinson and Val Terry. The draws for the Major and Minor Consistency Singles have been posted with the first round set down for Tuesday 29, then a short break until the second round on October 13th. With strong numbers of 14 contesting the Major and 15 the Minor, there should be some enthralling contests of draw bowls. Wendy Ballantyne