The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
Spalding saw victory snatched from their grasp in the final of the national women’s inter-club championship on Sunday.
They looked to have the winning post in their sights in the Yetton Trophy tie against St Neots when Gloria Haney’s rink held three shots on the penultimate end.
However, Hayley Felce produced a brilliant shot to turn the match around and see St Neots take the trophy and end Spalding’s hopes of winning it for the first time in their history.
Both teams fielded side with blend of youth and experience.
While St Neots fielded the newly-crowned national women’s indoor singles champion Michelle Barlow, one of Spalding’s skips was Annie Dunham, who won that title in 2016 and who won the WIBC world mixed pairs title earlier this month.
Barlow and Dunham had both skipped a rink for England in last month’s home international series in Belfast, where a number of Spalding’s young team were in the England squad.
A strange final turned out to be a game of two halves with St Neots dominating proceedings on the left side of the green and Spalding having the edge on the right hand side.
Barlow skipped her St Neots rink to a 22-7 win and June George’s quartet won 21-9 against Dunham on rinks three and rinks.
Spalding rinks skipped by Haney and Chelsea Tomlin chalked up wins of 23-15 and 23-8 respectively on rinks six and seven.
Trailing by two shots overall, Spalding looked to have the winning post in their sights when Haney’s rink held three shots on the penultimate end.
But Felce, whose daughters Emma and Hannah were also in the team, drew a brilliant shot so St Neots led 65-62 with just one end to play.
George, skipping against Dunham, was the one who made sure that Spalding’s chances of making three to tie or four to win were virtually nil, her last bowl on the last end taking the shot.
Spalding had earlier shared the rinks honours two apiece with the 2008 champions North Wilts who play in Chippenham in the semi-final – but the scale of the winning margins on two rinks gave the Lincolnshire side a convincing 78-54 victory.
Ruby Hill, Gill Needham, Louise Catchpole and Chelsea Tomlin led a North Wilts rink skipped by the normally dependable Fizz Mace by just two shots after 13 ends.
But they finished in style with a 4-3-5-2-4 sequence (18 shots without reply) and returned a handsome 29-9 scorecard.
A couple of rinks away, Pat Crampton, Judy Jackson, Rebecca Simpson and Annie Dunham led Sue Cooke’s rink 8-7 after eight ends, but also finished with a flourish, scoring a treble and a five on the last two ends to win 21-9.
The North Wilts rinks skipped by Jean Collier and Alex Jacobs showed some spirit, chalking up wins of 20-13 and 16-15 respectively.
And the Chippenham-based club were in with a shout with ten or so ends to play, but just could not cope with the big finish from the Spalding stars.
