25 September 2022

Congratulations to Virginia Longfellow and Chris Gordon (Harbord) on being our Region 15 State Pairs winners, and to Coral Lindley and Vicki Sawtell (Newport) on winning the Region 15 Senior Women’s Pairs.

The matches resumed under brilliant blue skies at Belrose this morning — a dramatic contrast to the conditions yesterday afternoon when games had begun but only a handful of ends played when a thunderstorm hit. Play restarted today with Harbord ahead in the State Pairs 7-5, and Newport ahead 5-1 in the Seniors.

Playing against Kate Wingrove and Jenny Hepburn (Neutral Bay), the Harbord pair started with a four, establishing a handy lead at 11-5. Neutral Bay struck back to narrow the margin to two at 9-11, but Virginia and Chris were never behind on the scoreboard. They were up 20-10 after 15 ends but Kate and Jenny picked up six shots over the following three ends to trail by only four after 18, sharpening the interest of the large crowd of spectators. After a single apiece, the margin was still four going into the last end. It was a nail-biting finish to the game, with Neutral Bay scoring three to fall one shot short of pushing the match into an extra end. Final score: Harbord 21 – Neutral Bay 20.

In the Senior Women’s Pairs, Coral and Vicki got two shots on the opening end; then their opponents Jenny Wallis and Bridget Nelson (Turramurra) won the next five ends, to be in the lead 11-7 at the half-way mark. However, Coral and Vicki put together a string of four ends to regain the lead 14-11 and they kept the momentum going to close out the match. Final score: Newport 21 – Turramurra 14.

The Regional winners will compete at the State Play-Offs from 25-27 July 2023.