Narrabri ladies win regional playoffs to qualify for the state championships

Narrabri Women’s Bowling Club will compete at state level again this year in July after Debbie Gleeson, Janice Foxe, Lisa Pillar and Lorraine Scott were crowned the open fours regional champions in Armidale on Tuesday.

The Narrabri ladies travelled to the Armidale City Bowling Club for the regional playoffs after they prevailed in Namoi District Women’s Bowling Club’s final, which was hosted by Lightning Ridge last month.

The Central North, New England and Gwydir Association champions were also in action in Armidale, and Narrabri went up against Uralla in the morning in the knockout semi-final.

Narrabri dominated that fixture and ran away with a convincing 30 shots to 10 victory, which meant that they qualified for the decider.

They met Inverell in that match on Tuesday afternoon after the Gwydir champions had beaten Central North champions South Tamworth earlier that day.

In a much closer contest, Narrabri defeated Inverell 22 shots to 19.

The Narrabri ladies will now travel to Wollongong in July to compete at the state playoffs.

In the regional playoffs semi-final on Tuesday, Gleeson played lead, Foxe played second, Pillar played third and Scott was skip.

They got off to a flying start as they won the first two ends to establish a seven shots to nothing lead.

Uralla hit back with a two on the third end, however, Narrabri then went on a six-end run to go ahead 19 shots to two.

Uralla took the 10th end as the score became 19-3, but the Narrabri ladies went on another dominant run that saw them win the next five ends to establish a 29 shots to three lead after 15 ends of play.

Uralla took both of the next two ends to reduce the deficit to 29-9, and the sides then scored a shot each across the next two ends as the score became 30-10 after 19 ends.

The game finished there as Narrabri progressed to the final.

The Narrabri ladies remained in the same positions for the final and that winning formula worked wonders again.

Inverell scored a four on the first end to take an early lead, however, the Narrabri ladies tied the score up with a four on the second end.

Inverell won four of the next five ends to lead eight shots to five after eight ends before Narrabri scored a five on the ninth end to take its first lead of the game as the score became 10-8.

Narrabri led until the 15th end, but a two to Inverell on the 16th saw them go in front 15-14.

However, that lead was short-lived as Narrabri scored a four on the 17th to regain the lead.

They then scored three shots to nothing across the next two ends to go ahead 21-15.

That six-shot margin was Narrabri’s largest lead of the match and it was reduced to just two on the 20th end when Inverell scored a four.

It was either side’s game going into the 21st and final end, and Narrabri got the job done as it scored a shot to win the match 22-19 and progress to the state playoffs.

Narrabri Women’s Bowling Club was also in action in regional triples playoffs yesterday.

Dawn Armstrong, Eva Sadler and Lisa Pillar competed in open triples, while Debbie Gleeson, Lorraine Scott and Helen Woodward played in the senior triples.

Both teams went down in the semi-final round.