Women’s Country Week Finals Breakdown
Played Sunday 22nd March 2015 Women’s Country Week Fours
On the very quick Osborne Park greens the fours final was a game of extreme concentration with any error of weight or line punished by the breeze blowing down the green. Roma Dunn, Julie Lindsay, Peg Currie and Jenni Rogalski (Dudley Park) entered the final at the Osborne Park Bowling Club as the more experienced team with Dunn, Lindsay and Currie three time winners of this event but the Boulder team of Irene Leahy, Lorraine Pettit, Christine Ace-Watson and Gail Fissioli were full of confidence after having a terrific tournament.
The Boulder team started the contest well by winning the first two ends and leading three nil before the Dudley Park foursome got into gear winning the next four ends, including a four on the fourth end, to lead 8-3. A pair of two’s by Leahy put the game on the edge and closed the gap to 8-9 after ten ends and both teams were in the contest. A single to Dunn, followed by another single and then a game winning three on the thirteenth put Dudley Park in the box seat leading 14-8 with only two ends to play. A two on the second last end to Boulder gave them some hope being only four behind going into the last end. With the wealth of high level experience in the Dudley Park team they were not about to let this game get away for them and took a single on the last end to take the Country Week Fours championship 15-10.
Women’s Country Week Pairs
Geraldton’s Lee Poletti has been a wonderful contributor to the game of lawn bowls in Western Australia but not far behind her is Bev Scott from Capel. The pairs final was set up for a great contest between two ladies who have played a lot of bowls together in state teams and at state events and against each other at countless country weeks. Scott and partner Suellen Payne started the contest strongly and lead three nil and 4-3 after six ends. However Poletti and her partner Jill Adam are no strangers to recent country week finals with a fours title together last year. Three singles settled them down before grabbing a three to grab a lead on the eighth end that they would never relinquish. A two gave Poletti a 9-4 lead and looking strong before the Capel pairing made a run to eat into the lead. A run of four consecutive ends got Scott to 9-9 and starting to look like a winner. But with four ends to play Poletti and Adam put together a decisive fourteenth end and scored four shots and then followed that up with a single on the next end to lead 14-9 with two ends to play. With the chips down and the title almost out of reach, Scott and Payne made one more charge for the line and scored their own four shots on the second last end to be only one behind. With the game on the line during the last bowls of the end, Poletti stepped up to draw a close bowl just behind the jack, another close bowl with Poletti’s last gave Scott a difficult winning chance if she could move the jack sideways. On a fast green and the breeze making things difficult, the Scott bowl went wide of the head to give Lee Poletti and Jill Adam the victory 17-13.
Women’s Country Week Singles
With victory alluding her in the pairs, it was time for Bev Scott (Capel) to take to the green for the singles title against last years champion Noelene Abe (Corrigin). Hoping to get a fast start after already being on the green in the previous game, Scott took singles on the first two ends. However Abe quickly got into gear and scored on the next three ends to take a 4-2, a two to Scott was followed by another three ends to Abe giving her an 8-4 advantage. End for end the two ladies went, with first Scott getting closer than Abe stretching the lead back to four. A two on the fifteenth end saw the lead stretch to six and Abe looked to be getting on top. At 8-14 Scott needed to string some ends together and was able to do just that. A single followed by a double and then two more singles took the score to 13-14 before Abe again responded with her own two. Scott hit back again and finally drew level at 17-17. A couple of wonderful sit and stay shots by Scott set up a number of opportunities to get some late numbers and put the pressure. But as Abe has done her whole career, pressure seems to be something she enjoys and she responded with last bowl draw shots to either get shot or cut the score down to one. A closely drawn three to Abe put her within one of victory before quickly grabbing the winning shot the next end to defend her Country Week Women’s Singles title.
Best Performed Women’s Country Week Club
With points awarded to winners, runner ups and equal thirds in each discipline, the final tally of the points is close each year. However not usually as close as this year as we had a three way tie between Capel, Dudley Park and Corrigin.
