Ladies Week
ALL OUR YESTERDAYS
July 2015: THE BCGBA SENIOR LADIES INDIVIDUAL MERIT CHAMPION
Below is the report included in the BCGBA Newsletter July 2015
KAREN GANT, THE SENIOR LADIES MERIT CHAMPION
Meltham BC bowler KAREN GANT came through a top class field in the 2015 British Crown Green Ladies Senior Individual Merit to prove a worthy champion on the tough greens at Haunchwood BC, Nuneaton. In the final she got the better of Sarah Fox from neighbours in South Yorkshire 21-15.
There were four former winners in the 64 line-up – Maggie Barnes (North Midlands) 2005, Sarah Hey (Wales) 2007, Maliza Herbert (Warwick & Worcester) 2011 and the defending champion, Nicola Boulton (Mid Cheshire) – with two making early exists, one going out in the second round and one in the semi-finals.
Defending champion, Nicola Boulton, crashed out in the first round to the 2007 winner, Sarah Hey 21-14. Hey herself was so close to reaching the final again but lost out to the eventual winner at the penultimate stage. Maggie Barnes lost 21-16 to Kelly Round (Warwick & Worcester) while after a fairly comfortable 21-11 opening win over Margaret Shore (Greater Manchester) Maliza Herbert bowed out in the second round to Wendy Jackson (Burton & District) 21-15. But the day belonged to the two finalists and in particular the winner Karen Gant.
Gant made her intentions known from the start with an impressive 21-8 opening victory over Caroline Bushell (Cumbria) while Fox outsmarted Mandy Basterfield (Dudley & District) 21-11. In the second round Gant was a comfortable 21-14 winner over Janelle Pertoldi (Greater Manchester) with Fox beating Jennie Adams (North Midlands) 21-16. The last sixteen produced three 21-20 games, a 21-19, a 21-18 and a 21-17 from Gant who faced her toughest game so far in defeating the three-time Champion of Champions winner, Katrina Earl (South Yorkshire). Fox had an easier game in her 21-12 success over Jean Barnes (Wirral).
The quarter-finals through to the final were played on the same green. Gant faced the two-time Junior Merit champion, and fellow Yorkshire colleague, Alicia Ormsby, and progressed to the semi-finals courtesy of a 21-13 victory. Fox also faced Yorkshire opposition in Nichole Farrar and came through a 21-15 winner.
Both semi-finals were close run affairs with Gant ending Sarah Hey’s hopes of adding to her 2007 title with a hard fought 21-19 victory while Fox won a close battle with former Champion of Champions winner, Wendy Jackson (Burton & District), 21-17.
Quarter-Finals: Christine Davies (North Warwickshire) 15 Wendy Jackson (Burton & District) 21; Nichole Farrar (Yorkshire) 15 Sarah Fox (South Yorkshire) 21; Alicia Ormsby (Yorkshire) 13 Karen Gant (Yorkshire) 21; Sarah Hey (Wales) 21 Louise Cotton (Shropshire) 19. Semi-Finals: Wendy Jackson 17 Sarah Fox (South Yorkshire) 21; Karen Gant 21 Sarah Hey 19. Final: Sarah Fox (South Yorkshire) 15 Karen Gant (Yorkshire) 21.
