Hot runs in women’s singles at national bowls qualifying
Tough Northland competitor Diane Strawbridge had a day to remember when she qualified in the women’s singles at the national bowls championships in Auckland yesterday.
Strawbridge, who won the Australian open fours last season, was impressive, conceding just four points during her opening three games to qualify with ridiculous ease, beating Senara Watt 21-0, Lindsay Nichols 21-4 and Jacqueline Belcher 21-0.
Having already qualified in the pairs with Carol Neeley, Strawbridge looms large with the business end of the championships starting today.
She will be joined in post-section play by a number of leading lights, including her provincial team mate Sue Wightman.
Sarah Scott, daughter of the 1990 men’s singles champion Terry, won three games straight.
Formerly of Dunedin but now out of the famed Te Rangi club in Invercargill, Scott received a scare in her first game in beating Judy Smith 21-18, but then accounted for Lisa Prideaux 21-12 and Moira Johansen 21-11.
Past internationals Wendy Jensen and Selina Goddard both took the easy route, qualifying with a game to spare.
Also taking the same comfortable course was Ashleigh Jeffcoat, who is hunting a place in the New Zealand squad that will be named later in January, her pairs partner, Dale Rayner, and the 2008 world singles winner, Val Smith.
But it was a reversal from the pairs for Reen Stratford, twice a singles finalist, after she missed out. Meanwhile, in the men’s pairs, nearly all of the favoured combinations survived, although there were some anxious moments.
The exceptions were Wellington youngsters Finbar McGuigan and Bradley Down, who made the quarterfinals last season, but never recovered from Thursday’s two losses. They fell 17-13 to Justin Goodwin and Shannon McIlroy in their first match on Friday to be eliminated.
In the section of death, the other big guns survived, with a surprising seven of the 14 teams gaining the necessary four wins from six games to advance.
Those teams included Goodwin and McIlroy, who gained their fourth victory with a round to spare, 19-12 over Cook Islands representatives Adoni WichmanRairoa and Aidan Zittersteijn.
However, the latter pair got through in the sixth round 18-16 over Seamus Curtin and Sheldon Bagrie-Howley, who had already qualified.
Jamie Hill and Gary Lawson also incurred a second defeat 15-13 to Thames Valley’s Colin Gawith and Karl Garrett, twice semifinalists in the pairs.
But Hill and Lawson successfully negotiated their fourth win, 15-11, in a winner-take-all last round clash against wellregarded Aucklanders Graham Growcott and Nick Thompson.
Today sees the start of post-section play, with the women playing pairs and the men playing singles.