Lorraine Scott was in fine form at Port City Bowling Club last week where the Narrabri Women’s Bowling Club bowler lined up at Bowls NSW’s 2021 season Women’s Champion of Club Champions Singles tournament.
The event was initially scheduled to be held last year in October but was postponed due to the restrictions put in place amid the COVID pandemic.
Scott qualified for the event after she won her local club’s Singles final back in May last year when she outscored Debbie Gleeson 25 shots to 23.
That was Scott’s sixth Club Singles crown after she had won the event previously in 2007, 2011, 2017, 2019 and 2020.
Bowls NSW’s Women’s Champion of Club Champions Singles tournament for 2021 was contested from Sunday, June 26, to Wednesday, June 29.
Scott was placed into section seven with Wingham’s Claudia O’Donnell and Neutral Bay’s Midori Matsuoka. The top-ranked bowler of that trio after they had all played against each other once each would progress to the round of 32, and that was Scott after she won both of her games.
Matsuoka beat O’Donnell 25-15 in game one, then Scott scored a 25-21 win against O’Donnell in game two.
That meant that the third and final section seven match between Scott and Matsuoka on Monday morning would determine which of the two bowlers would advance through to the knockout stage.
Scott trailed eight shots to nothing after the first six ends of that match but eventually tied the game at 15-all at the completion of the 19th end.
The score was then 18-all after 24 ends and 20-all after 27 ends. Scott then claimed five of the next six ends to score a 27-22 victory.
Scott played her round of 32 game that afternoon in which she took on Charlestown’s Raweang Namutwong.
The Narrabri bowler won that match despite suffering another slow start. This time, Scott trailed nine shots to nothing after just four ends before she won 10 of the next 12 ends to establish her first lead of the game when she edged ahead 15-14 at the completion of the 16th.
She then lost two of the next three ends and trailed 18-17, but rallied to win the next five ends a combined 10 shots to nothing to win the match 27-18.
That win saw Scott qualify for day three of the tournament on Tuesday, which would begin with a round of 16 game against South Tamworth bowler Cathy Verdich.
Scott had only played Verdich once before, back in July last year when she defeated the South Tamworth bowler 25-14 at the South Tamworth Bowling Club in the Region 3 Singles Playoffs, which Scott eventually won to qualify for the 2021 Bowls NSW State Playoffs.
However, Verdich tied the record up at 1-all in Port Macquarie with a 25-22 victory.
That match was a close one for the entire contest. The largest winning margin in the entire 33 ends of play was four points, which both bowlers boasted on just one occasion each.
The score was tied on four different ends and Scott led 20-18 after 27 ends. However, Verdich won five of the next six ends to claim a 25-22 win.
Verdich went on to lose 25-23 in the quarter-final to St Johns Park bowler Dawn Hayman, who made it all the way to the grand final.
Hayman was downed 25-19 in that decider last Wednesday against Karen Murphy from Cabramatta, who was crowned the 2021 champion.
