Kingborough claw their way into Grand Final
A report for The Mercury by Peter Kirby
With a place in the Grand Final at stake, the Preliminary Final of Bowls South’s Thursday Women’s Pennant Division 1 between Kingborough and Glenorchy Rodman lived up to expectations with the result in doubt until the last few ends, with Kingborough hanging on to win by 6 shots, 60-54.
Glenorchy Rodman started with purpose, building an early lead, but Kingborough fought back to level the scores, 22-all, at the lunch break. Recharged after the break, Rodman again took the lead, with Kingborough battling to keep in touch.
Playing the game of her life, Kerrie Lane secured the win for Kingborough, holding her nerve over the final three ends of her match with Rodman’s Crystal Brooks, herself also playing strongly, to pick up three singles to finish 10 shots up, 20-10.
Lane received great support from her lead, Yvonne Duffy, who drew close to the jack consistently throughout the match. Brooks was forced to drive at the head on a number of occasions to convert the head in her favour, a tactic that brought her some success, forcing ends to be replayed.
Rodman’s Peta Barnett had the better of Kingborough’s Maddie Johnston early in their match, which Johnston slowly wore down to be in front by 2 shots at the break, but a 5 to Barnett on the ninth end had her in the ascendancy again which she built into a good six shot advantage by the eleventh end.
Johnston’s rink rallied to whittle away the margin, with a five-shot gain on the fourteenth end levelling the scores. Johnston finally broke clear with a four on the seventeenth end to close out a tight three-shot win, 26-23.
Kingborough’s Leonie Price looked set for a successful day against Joy Voss, leading by 6 shots after two ends, but with Voss slowly gaining her touch the match turned into an arm wrestle. Behind by one shot after the fourteenth end, Voss picked up a 3 on the next end, then added consecutive threes over the next two ends to pull away to an eight-shot lead.
Price tried valiantly to pull back the deficit but brilliant draw bowling from Voss thwarted all efforts by Price to recover her momentum, with Voss claiming a solid seven-shot win for her side, 21-14.
Kingborough meets Howrah in the Division 1 Grand Final at the Buckingham Bowls Club next Tuesday where the Kingborough ladies will be hoping for a reversal of last year’s result.
Preliminary Final action in the other divisions saw Sandy Bay defeat Dover, 64-48, to proceed to the Division 2 Grand Final against Orford, North Hobart will play Club Beltana after defeating Howrah, 54-48, and Buckingham will meet Royal Hobart in the Division 4 Grand Final.