Spurred on by loyal supporters, hydrated and looked after continuously by manager Mary-Ann Wilson, and responding to the watchful eye and tone of coach Janice McKenna, the Victoria Womens Premier Division team carried away the Wellington title on Saturday with a superb nail-biting effort.
The team of Lisa White (singles), Judith Wyeth and Leigh Griffin (pairs), and Hayley May, Kirsten Griffin, Nina De Munnik and Kay Carr (fours) qualify for the Regional interclub play-offs in Wellington on Saturday 27th February.
The morning play-off game between the top two teams against Petone Central was close enough with both the pairs and fours games going down to the last end after Lisa had earlier won the singles. But that was nothing compared to the drama of the final against arch-rivals Johnsonville. Again Lisa bowled very well to knock over in-form Paula Meredith 25-18 (remember that, diff of 7 shots…). The pairs and fours had been ahead early but drifted behind so things were not looking good going into the last end of each. Victoria needed either a 4 in the pairs, or a 6 in the fours to grab a draw and thereby atleast take the match to a countback.
Judith and Leigh bowled superbly in the final end on a full-length slower ditch hand to draw the 4 shots required within about 8 inches of room. Kaaren Guildford did not counter, and a measure proved they’d done the miracle, four shots Victoria! So, how were the fours doing… six down on the board, three shots down on the head, all about 18 inches away but skip Kay had seen her troops drift too far through the head. Kay’s first bowl had good weight but cut under the head.
The maths was we needed to atleast cut JV to one shot, to tie the diff, forcing an extra end to be played in the pairs. A shot for Vic would win the title on diff. The status quo on the head would be a sobering loss to the enemy. It all rested on Kay… And it looked great the whole way down!! Shot to Kay with a bowl to play from Luis Hare. A run shot from the skip in blue was wide, Victoria victorious!!
And Mercia was proud and excited! And the spectators could breath again and collapse to the bar…
Well done girls!! The Programme page will be updated with a venue when we hear it…