Laurie Gilbert and Cindy Neil crowned Namoi District Mixed Pairs champions

Narrabri Sporties duo Laurie Gilbert and Cindy Neil are the Namoi District Mixed Pairs champions for 2021 after winning the tournament hosted on their home green at the weekend.

The Namoi District Mixed Pairs event was contested on the John McNamara Owen Campey Green on Saturday and Sunday by nine teams.

They were split into three sections, with the top team from each section progressing through to Sunday’s threeway round robin playoff.

All matches were played across 15 ends which included Saturday’s sectional matches and Sunday’s playoffs.

Section one winners were Lightning Ridge’s Tracey Coglan and Gary Fairweather.

All three section one teams scored a win, but Coglan and Fairweather’s was by the largest margin which saw them progress to the playoff.

The first section one game was won by Narrabri duo Graham Rose and Di Chessells who defeated Wee Waa’s Lisa Pillar and Narrabri’s Dave Dewar 14-12.
Pillar and Dewar then bounced back when they downed Coglan and Fairweather 20-11 in game two.

In the all-important third and final match, Coglan and Fairweather outscored Chessells and Rose 21-6 to qualify for the playoff.

Section two winners were Narrabri Sporties bowlers Helen Woodward and Rob Wolters.

Like section one, all three section two teams were victorious once each.

The first game saw Narrabri duo Eva Sadler and Trinity Kelly defeat clubmates Woodward and Wolters 15-12.

Woodward and Wolters then downed fellow Narrabri bowlers Marie and Tony Redman 20-9.

Marie and Tony then beat Eva Sadler and Trinity Kelly 15-12, which meant that Woodward and Wolters progressed to the playoff as a result of their superior winning margin.

Cindy Neil won both of her section three matches with different partners. She was initially scheduled to play with Wee Waa’s Kyne Allen who was unavailable of the day, but teamed up with another Wee Waa bowler Peter Hennessy.

They defeated Narrabri Sporties’ David and Joyce Briggs 13-9 in the first match of the day in section three.

David and Joyce were then defeated 30-5 by Lightning Ridge’s Heidi Monch and Darren Richards in game two.

Hennessy was unavailable to play in the third game of the day, so Neil teamed up with Laurie Gilbert for that match.

The Narrabri duo edged out Monch and Richards 12-11 to progress to the playoff.

The first playoff match on Sunday morning saw the section one and two winners go head-to-head.

In that match, Woodward and Wolters beat Coglan and Fairweather 15-7.

The Lightning Ridge duo then took on Gilbert and Neil and went down 24-7 which knocked them out of contention for the championship.

That result meant that the two Narrabri playoff finalists had won a game each and would meet in the final game of the tournament to compete for the championship.

Gilbert and Neil got off to a great start and were leading 6-0 after three ends. However, Woodward and Wolters fought back to tie the match at 6-all after six ends. Gilbert and Neil then dominated the rest of the match, scoring 16 shots to 3 across the remaining nine ends to win the game 22-9.