Inch outclasses Boyd
The resounding 21-3 victory by Katelyn Inch over fellow New Zealand squad member Angela Boyd was the most notable feature of play in the women’s singles at the New Zealand bowls championships in Dunedin on Sunday.
Inch hails from Oxford in North Canterbury, but honed her skills on Australia’s Gold Coast for much of 2017. Among her most notable results was winning the Queensland singles title and her progress as a player of some quality was confirmed in the manner in which she dispatched Boyd.
The introduction of a time limit – which is being used for qualifying games only – reared its ugly head for the first time in the women’s singles where the bell prevented Dale Rayner from extracting revenge on Val Smith.
After Smith, and Jo Edwards, had beaten Rayner, with Ashleigh Jeffcoat, in the pairs qualifying, Smith and Rayner had a ding-dong battle in the opening round of the singles. It was Smith that got the win, 20-19, with time preventing either player hitting the 21 target.
Elsewhere, Jeffcoat beat past New Zealand rep Sandra Keith 21-12, while Amy McIlroy continued on her excellent form in beating two tough competitors, Serena Matthews and Linley O’Callaghan.
But New Zealand development rep Natasha Russell lost her first two games to be eliminated. The second round loss was to Reen Stratford, last year’s runner-up, who had been beaten herself in round one.
There were unbeaten starts made by Canadian internationals Leanne Chinery and Kelly McKerihen, as well as Tayla Bruce and Edwards.
Post section in the men’s pairs on Thursday is sure to feature plenty of mouth-watering contests after virtually all the guns cruised through qualifying. The big noises, after three wins on Saturday, had already gained win number four by lunchtime Sunday, including Gary Lawson and Ali Forsyth, Justin Goodwin and Shannon McIlroy, Tony Grantham and Michael Kernaghan, Michael Bessley and Richard Girvan.
Young New Zealand development reps Seamus Curtain and Sheldon Bagrie-Howley also had an impressive look to their fourstraight win record.
After one loss on Saturday, two previous winners, Petar Sain and Rob Ashton, and Lance Tasker and Peter Belliss, both made it through with a round to spare, as did Sean O’Neill and Peter Hodson. While reigning singles champion, Dean Elgar, with Scott Roberts, won all three on Sunday to advance.
Perhaps the biggest casualty was two-time singles champion Shaun Scott, who was partnered by Stephen O’Driscoll. After only one win on Saturday, the curtains fell in the fifth round to the Blair and Neville Thomson, which granted qualification to the duo from Balclutha.
Both the men and women have fours qualifying on Monday and Tuesday.