Inch outclasses Boyd – by a mile
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 yesterday.
Inch, from Oxford in North Canterbury, 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.
Inch won her next two matches to qualify, but Boyd exited when she lost 21-13 to Nicole Toomey in the third round. It was a welcome return to qualification for Toomey.
The time limit – 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 exacting 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.
But Rayner at least had the satisfaction of winning the next three games to join the other three players among the qualifiers.
Tayla Bruce qualified, as did Amy McIlroy, however, the 2015 champion Leigh Griffin, who had the same ticklish draw as McIlroy, did not qualify.
NZ development rep Natasha Russell also missed out after losing her first two games. The second-round loss was to Reen Stratford, last year’s runner-up, who had been upended herself in round one.
The men’s pairs post section 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 Beesley and Richard Girvan.
Young NZ development reps Seamus Curtain and Sheldon Bagrie Howley also had an impressive look to their four-straight 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, partnered by Stephen O’Driscoll. After only one win on Saturday, the curtains fell in the fifth round to Blair and Neville Thomson, allowing the duo from Balclutha to qualify.
Both the men and women have fours qualifying today and tomorrow.