13 August 2023

It was a close-fought, all-Neutral-Bay, District Singles Final at Belrose today after both Jenny Hepburn and Kate Wingrove had won their morning semi-finals.

In Jenny’s semi, her opponent Dale Nuttall (Belrose) got off to a flying start and was out to a 7-0 lead after four ends, then 9-1 after seven. Consecutive 3s got Jenny into the match, and after 15 ends the score was 13-all. At 19 ends Jenny hit the lead for the first time at 18-16, and a strong finish saw her take out the match 25-17.

In the other semi-final, Kate was up against Di McBryde (St Ives), with Kate winning seven of the first eight ends to be leading 11-1. The players scored was fairly evenly over the next ten ends, then Di won seven of the following nine ends to be only one shot behind at 21-20 — “game on”!! However, Kate held firm and picked up one single at a time until she secured the victory 25-20.

The final was yet another game where one player got off to a great start, with Jenny up 10-1 after seven ends. But three ends later, there was only one shot the difference at 10-9 — definitely “game on”!! From that point it was an arm-wrestle, with scores level at 11-all, 13-all, 15-all, 16-all — in each case with Kate inching in front and Jenny having to play catch-up. Then, Jenny’s version of “catch-up” stepped up a pace, with her winning five ends in a row to be within one shot of victory at 24-17. A 3 from Kate to make it 24-20 gave her the momentum to draw some fine shots on the next end and keep the spectators glued to their seats despite the bitterly cold wind. But Jenny’s third bowl was a weighted shot that found the jack and took it through to the ditch, with her bowl remaining less than a metre away. When Kate’s last bowl encountered front traffic, victory was Jenny’s.

The District Final of the Senior Singles was also played today, between Vicki Bartrop (St Ives) and Elaine Seidler (Neutral Bay). The game was evenly-matched at the outset, with the score 6-all after five ends. Scores remained tight until the 12th end, when a 3 to Vicki saw her into a good lead at 16-11. Vicki then got on a roll, scoring 4 on the following ends to lead 20-11. Elaine fought back and had the deficit down to 5 shots at 21-16; however but Vicki won the next three ends to close out the match 25-16.