23 May 2021

Players from three North Shore clubs combined in a “composite team” for the 2021 WBNSW State Carnival this week, powering their way undefeated through 11 matches over the five days to win the event. More than 900 players from across the State entered this year, with the 232 teams divided across 18 Sections playing at 9 venues from Forster to Gloucester.

The team of Elizabeth Blackwell (Neutral Bay), Diane McBryde (St Ives), Midori Matsuoka (Neutral Bay) and Patricia Tan (Belrose) were “daily winners” in their Section on two of the three days of sectional play. (On the first day, their winning scores were 35-5 and 25-9 which set the tone for the day two, when they won 36-8 and 19-12.) The third day started with another convincing win 29-10, then a draw in the final game saw them miss out on the daily prize by 4 shots. However, they easily took out the overall Section win to progress to the Post-Sectional rounds.

With 18 section winners, the team was unlucky to be amongst four who were drawn to play an additional “knock-out” round, meaning they had to play three games on the Thursday! Up against other Section winners, the team found the competition got harder but they managed to hold through the first games 13-11 and 13-12, before hitting their stride again to take the Quarter-final 18-7. On Friday in their semi-final, the “livestream” cameras captured a strong fight-back against a team from Taree Leagues; after trailing on the scoreboard in the first third of the game, they turned it around to eventually win 26-10 and make their way into the afternoon Final against South Tamworth skipped by Deb Quick. Unfortunately, the weather turned and the Final was plagued with rain stoppages while contestants waited for the lake on the green to recede. It was a tight contest until late in the game, when the North Shore girls opened up a small lead. Finding themselves seven shots ahead with two ends to play, they made sure they didn’t concede multiples and claimed the match 19-14. Champions!!