Pam Scarborough
Byron Bay’s district winning, grade three pennants bowl team knew they had stepped up a grade when they began the first round of the regional district championships held at Ballina earlier this month.
Round one was against South Grafton and it came down to the last few ends with Kym Quinnell’s team going down by just one point, but the partner team skipped by tenacious Pat Bigg saved the day with a three-point win for her team, giving an overall, 34-32 win to Byron Bay.
After lunch, Byron Bay took on Ballina and the competent leads set the game, with the seconds and thirds able to build on that. An overall synched team effort was reflected in the comfortable score of 49–29.
In the final, the Byron women came up against Park Beach (Coffs Harbour) who were keen to stamp their superiority over Byron and got away with a reasonable lead right from the start.
Byron Bay put down some great bowls, but the Park Beach seconds and thirds just took the shots away, leaving the skips in a tricky place.
However it wasn’t all Park’s way, and Byron Bay enjoyed some sweet victories throughout the game. The end result of 39–26 over 42 ends, was a pretty good two- day effort from a small club like Byron Bay.
The Ballina Cherry Street Club hosted the championships and roughly 100 players, with their reserves and support crew, enjoyed great weather, and some excellent competition and camaraderie on the North Coast.
