Marr finally secures 10th centre title
IT has been a fiveyear wait but Trish Marr (St Clair) finally earned a bar to the gold star when St Clair won the Dunedin centre women’s open fours at the bowls stadium on Sunday.
In winning her 10th Bowls Dunedin title, Marr played third in the Carolyn Crawfordskipped team that included Sharon McCaw (second) and Paula Ramsay (lead).
Ramsay picked up her first centre title after she became an 11thhour replacement for Gaynor Moss.
The road to the women’s fours final suffered somewhat from a turbulent start.
The Crawford four suffered an inglorious 189 defeat in the first round to the Fairfield four skipped by Jacqui Peterson. Then they came back from the brink in the second round to burgle a win over Marion Hambleton’s Outram four thanks to a miracle bowl from Crawford in her final delivery that scored two shots for a knifeedge 1211 victory.
The Crawford four were untroubled in the third round, running out convincing 163 victors over Barbara Archer’s Taieri four.
At the semifinal stage the Outram four had a chance for redemption when it found itself on the same side of the draw as Crawford’s St Clair quartet.
But despite a few tense moments the Crawford four ran out 146 victors and a right to play the Shannon McEwanskipped Green Island four that included Karen Lobb, Gaye Watkins and Lyn Baird.
For the greater part of the final, the Green Island quartet were highly competitive, and the game was locked up at 10all after nine of the mandatory 15 ends. The Green Island four then went ahead 1110 on the 10th end. But over the final five ends, playing some magnificent draw shots the St Clair four played like a team possessed scoring two shots on each of the final five ends to run away with the title in recording a 2011 victory. The score not a fair reflection of the competition each team brought to the final.
The strength of the St Clair four further exposed with it becoming a 27th centre title for Crawford and a fourth for McCaw.
After congratulating the St Clair four on their victory McEwan, said she was proud of her team and how it performed over the weekend, exceeding all expectation.
The men’s final was interrupted by rough weather and the final will be played on Sunday.
The Joko Susilo skipped Andersons Bay four including Paul King, Graeme Cock and Grant Simpson, will take on the Reece Aitken skipped Fairfield four including Russell Reynolds, Kris Newall and Wayne Hewitt.