Katon eliminates six-time champ Murphy

by admin on August 18, 2014

Aberdeen’s Janine Katon has accomplished the seemingly impossible, something that no other player has been capable of since 2010, by defeating three-time defending champion Karen Murphy at the Australian Indoor Championships at Tweed Heads. The six-time winner was riding a 16-game winning streak leading into the second round encounter against Katon, who later confessed to having very limited experience on carpet greens prior to her momentous win. While Murphy’s most recent loss at the Indoors came at the hands of Arlene Jeffery 1,455 days ago, Katon caused the upset of the tournament as she held her nerve to advance to her maiden quarter-final at a national event. During an engrossing affair, Katon blasted her way to a 8-1 margin over 5 ends, and mitigated the attack to pencil in a 9-8 first set. She went tit for tat in the second set, and unbelievably poached the last shot to tie the set 5-5 and record the biggest win of her career. “I’m speechless right now, I just can’t believe it,” Katon said. “Never in a million years did I think I could beat her – I’m so over the moon. “I don’t even know how I played like I did, I’ve never done that before, I was so nervous my hands were shaking and I couldn’t hold my bowls but they just seemed to do the right thing. “I don’t care what happens now, I was happy to just win the first game this morning,- I’m from a tiny little club of 20 members in the bush.” Katon was humble in her self assessment, confessing to have only played on carpet once before stepping on the Tweed Heads green this morning. “I went down to Warilla to qualify for the event, I had brand new bowls that I had owned for five days and played on carpet for the first time in my life to qualify,” Katon added. “This is only the second time that I’ve ever played on carpet, cause we just don’t have them at home. Katon faces another monumental hurdle in order to progress to the Fox Sports broadcasted semi-finals, in the form of Tweed Heads local gun Kristy Thatcher, who emphatically accounted for Western Australia’s Rechelle Cole 9-4, 11-1 in the second round rubber.