Singles Championships decided
A report for The Mercury by Peter Kirby
A good crowd of spectators was treated to some excellent bowling at the Kingborough Bowls Club on Sunday, when the finals of Bowls South’s Women’s and Men’s B Grade and Open Singles Championships were played. The Open Women’s Final was the most exciting of the matches, with defending Champion, Joy Voss (Glenorchy Rodman) playing Brighton’s Tayla Munro.
Voss seemingly had the match under control when leading Munro by 6 shots, 22-16, and just 3 shots short of victory. A determined effort by Munro over the next three ends resulted in her gaining 6 shots to level the scores, 22-22. Voss picked up consecutive singles to lead 24-22, to which Munro responded with two singles of her own to equal the scores at 24-all.
Voss steadied to claim the Women’s Open Singles title on the next end with the single shot needed victory, 25-24. Congratulations to Joy Voss for the successful defence of her title, and to Tayla Munro, also, for her tenacious efforts in keeping the result in doubt to the very end.
With Jack Ellis leading Claremont’s Michael Taylor by 7 shots, 20-13, Glenorchy Rodman was close to claiming bragging rights with a member of the club taking out the Men’s Open Singles title as well. Taylor, though, had other ideas, and through intense concentration won each of the next 5 ends played, in the process adding 10 shots to his score to lead Ellis, 23-20.
Congratulations to Michael Taylor, who claimed his second Open Men’s Singles title on the next end, getting the 2 shots needed to win the match, 25-23. Jack Ellis will rue the loss, but should not be too disappointed with his performance.
Howrah’s Robert Johnston won the Men’s B Grade Singles title in another come from behind effort against New Norfolk’s Danny Lockley. Lockley was well on the way to victory, leading 20-15, before Johnston gained the momentum to win 7 ends in a row, in the process accumulating the 10 shots required to win the match, 25-20.
The Women’s B Grade Singles Final was an all-Taroona affair, with club mates, Ros Bridge and Dianne Coleman facing off against each other. Although Bridge managed to limit her losses to a single shot on most ends, Coleman was in control of the match from the outset, steadily increasing her advantage as the match progressed, to win the match by 12 shots, 25-13, to become Bowls South’s Women’s B Grade Singles Champion for 2023-24.