Handicap games are designed to give certain players, generally newer additions to the sport of lawn bowls, a chance to compete with veteran players.
I can say for certain, if I had to face any of these four players – Vicki Day, Marg Bowdler, Karen Neill & Courtney Wright, I would expect to have some sort of handicap to give me even the tiniest advantage!
With both teams – Vicki Day partnered with Marg Bowdler and Karen Neill & Courtney Wright together, coming through the competition and knocking out some extremely talented teams, this was always going to be an exciting match up.
With Vicki & Marg having to give Karen & Courtney a +7 head start for a 21 end game, it wasn’t going to be easy to catch up.
Courtney starting off red hot and the other 3 participants known to wind up gradually after a few ends, the scores at one point looked a bit one-sided. As Vicki and Marg came into their relaxed stage, the gap was getting closed at a fast rate.
Vicki showing time and time again why she is one of the best players from McKenzie Park, constantly and consistently putting a stop to high scores from Karen & Courtney – turning 3’s and 4’s against, into one point for herself and Marg.
Marg Bowdler was a terrific lead as per usual, placing multiple resting touchers and aggressively replacing bowls Karen put in the head with her own.
Karen was no slouch, placing some amazing bowls in the head with Courtney also saving the day on multiple occasions.
As everyone knew, it was going to go down to the wire! With the scores set at 20 to 16, it was down to Vicki to try and knock a bowl of Karen’s out to get them a definite 4, maybe a 5. With the crowd standing up in anticipation, she let it go…… narrowly missing her target, it was the end of a marvelous game with Karen & Courtney taking out the title of Ladies Handicap Pairs Winners 20 to 18!
Well done ladies, everyone thoroughly enjoyed the game, it was incredibly suspenseful! Congratulations Vicki, Marg, Karen & Courtney!
