2020 Open Pairs Champions – L-R Louise Amos (skip) and Ngoc Hau (Killara)
The semi-finals and finals of both the Open and Senior Pairs were held at Lindfield Rollers today. After a lot of wet and wild weather in February, we were blessed with a fine weekend for this first championship of the year. On Saturday, at both West Pymble for the Open Pairs and at Asquith for the Senior, there were some "upsets" in the early rounds, which brought some new faces into today's semi's. The matches in the Open saw Neutral Bay vs Neutral Bay and Killara vs Killara! The Neutral Bay match went down to the wire, with Maggie Jay and Midori Matsuoka eventually overcoming Belinda Henderson and Elaine Seidler 16-14. In the Killara match, Ngoc Hau and Louise Amos dominated the game against their newer club-mates Anne Rands and Julie Dunn from start to finish, but the match was notable for the great spirit in which is was played; final score 24-11. The Final between Killara and Neutral Bay was a real arm-wrestle, with neither team ever getting more than a shot or two ahead of the other. Maggie and Midori held a one-shot lead going into the last end, but a two to Killara saw Ngoc and Louise take out the title 17-16.
2020 Senior Pairs Champions — L-R Shizuko Hashimoto and Di McBryde (Skip) (Killara)
In the Senior Pairs semis, Lee Eastaugh and Cynthia Palmer (Neutral Bay) got off to a great start against the Belrose team of Lorraine Fevre and Michelle Treadwell, and built steadily on their score from there. The Belrose team made a late charge, but had left their run too late, with the final score 24-19 to The Bay. The other semi was the "battle of the 'subs'", with both teams' leads having been substituted out for the finals day. Brenda Walker (subbing for Pam Cole) and Gill Barton of Neutral Bay began well against Jan Woodcock (subbing for Shizuko Hashimoto) and Di McBryde, but Jan's experience at this level of competition saw her put in a very consistent performance which started to take its toll on the opposition. With Di backing her up well, the St Ives pair drew away to win 18-11. In the Seniors Final, the St Ives pair kept up their consistent form to build their lead to 11 shots with only 4 ends to go. It looked as though they had their grasp on the trophy, and even dropping a 5 on the second-last end couldn't stop them from taking out the title, 23-16.