Chris Ace-Watson Wins 2023 Champion of Champion Singles
Mosman Park’s Chris Ace-Watson and Perth & Tattersalls Lisa Smith battled it out in the Final of the 2023 Women’s Champion of Champion Singles at Yokine on Sunday. Both women were shooting for their first major singles title with both having been runner up in the State Singles and Champion of Champion Singles respectively in recent years.
In the first Semi-Final Ace-Watson came up against renowned singles player Helen Morss (South Perth). Morss jumped out with a three on the first end but Ace-Watson returned serve with a three on the third end and then shot out to a 10-5 lead. Both players traded shots for the next seven ends leaving Ace-Watson still with a five-shot lead at 15-10.
A single and a two saw Morss close the jap to two before Ace-Watson grabbed a two herself to extend the lead back out to four. Again, Morss won two ends in a row to sit a solitary shot behind Ace-Watson with all the momentum. A single to Ace-Watson put the lead back to two but again Morss won two ends in a row, with first a two to draw level and then a single to hit the front. A single to Ace-Watson again saw the scores draw level with both players on 19 in the 25up Semi-Final.
Both ladies traded shots as well as the lead as they edged their way to a place in the final. A two to Ace-Watson to go to a 21-20 lead was answered by Morss for her to jump to the lead 22-21. A nicely timed three to Ace-Watson took her to 24 and a single shot from victory. Morss steadied with a single to stay in the game but with a tense finish in sight, in front a healthy crowd, Chris Ace-Watson grabbed the shot she needed to defeat Helen Morss 25-23 and move into the Sem-Final.
The second Semi Final was a rematch of last year’s final where Kathy Gobbart (Gingin) prevailed over Lisa Smith to take home the trophy. The early going of this year’s Semi-Final looked much the same as Gobbart won the first six ends including two threes, to march to a 10-nil lead. Smith finally got off the mark with a three and proceeded to win six of the next nine ends, including three twos to reel Gobbart in and only be two behind at 11-13. The experience of Gobbart kicked in as she was able to stop the Smith march to win the next three ends and go back out to an 18-11 lead. However, Smith has plenty of her own experience as a two-time runner up in this event and she once again took up the challenge to get a two and a three to once again be only two behind at 16-18.
For the next eight ends the two ladies threw everything at each other, and both slowly made their way towards 25. Gobbart had continued to stay barely in front the whole second half of the match and when she took a two on the 29th end to lead 24-21, it looked like another final was beckoning her. Then suddenly the game was over but not the way the crowd thought it might, when Lisa Smith won a full count of four shots to race over the top of Kathy Gobbart and grab the lead for the first time in the 30-end semi-final and advance to the final 25-24.
The Chris Ace-Watson and Lisa Smith final started with a bang and for one of them it didn’t stop. Ace-Watson grabbed a four on the first end, only to see Smith hit back on the second end with a three of her own. A three to Ace-Watson on the third end and the crowd thought they were watching a game of cricket, with Ace-Watson leading 7-3 after three ends. A single to Smith bought the game back to a less exciting level but Ace-Watson was having none of it and sparked up again with a two to lead 9-4. A three on the sixth end to Smith seemed like the game was back on at 9-7 but it was the beginning of the end as Ace-Watson piled on the shots.
A run of seven ends was all that was needed for Ace-Watson to go from 9 to 25. First a three followed by a four, another three, two twos and a couple of singles saw Chris Ace-Watson from Mosman Park dominate the second half of the match and be declared the 2023 Women’s Champion of Champion Singles in style.
