2011 $10,000 Black Douglas Ladies Singles for Masters
South Tweed Sports
Kelsey Cottrell WINS her 2nd Black Douglas
Final
Kelsey Cottrell (St John's Park) DEF Karen Murphy (Cabramatta) 25-20
Despite fluctuating breezes, cloud cover, sunshine and the imposing World
number 6 and two time champion alongside her, Kelsey Cottrell played a flawless
final to defeat Karen Murphy 25-20. Cottrell drew beautifully all day and when
needed to played weighted bowls to stall any momentum Murphy sought to attain.
It was 8-4 to Murphy (7 ends) before a pair of 3s gave Cottrell the lead and
even at this early stage it was the one-two draw and drive on show for Cottrell.
Such was the consistency of Cottrell on the 11th the crowd gasped when a flying
Cottrell drive failed to hit and Murphy picked up two and Murphy led 11-10.
The 18th end was a defining moment in the match. Cottrell held 2 with a
measure with a bowl each to play. Murphy's weighted shot missed and 3 shots
confirmed. Cottrell broke away to lead 18-13 (18 ends). Under extreme pressure
at the next with Cottrell holding 3, Murphy played a wonderful draw to take 1
and trail 14-18. With a comeback looming Murphy drew a resting toucher with her
2nd before Cottrell played a big drive to clean out the kitty with bowl and
kitty ending up in the sand. It was 1 shot to Cottrell and the lead 19-14 (20
ends). That was a momentum killer.
With Murphy holding 2 Cottrell struck again with a drive but the kitty just
fell inside the rink marker with Kelsey's bowl 3 feet away. Murphy has room to
draw but was too long and beached it. Uncharacteristic but it showed the
pressure out there in the breeze. 1 to Cottrell and 20-14 after 21 ends.
Murphy collected two at the next with a brilliant last bowl to trail 16-20
and leave the crowd wondering about a comeback before Cottrell again broke the
momentum with a single at the 23rd end to lead 21-16. First Murphy then Cottrell
collected singles and at the 26th Cottrell held two with a bowl to play for
Murphy. Not for the first time Murphy's weighted shot missed and it was 24-17 to
Cottrell with game in sight.
To her credit Murphy wasn't giving up and with a bowl each Murphy held two.
Cottrell played with weight that somehow picked the narrowest of gaps and Murphy
drew another to take 3 and was back to 20-24.
At the 28th end Murphy started with a close toucher but Cottrell nonchalantly
gave it a bump to hold shot and match. With a bowl each to play Cottrell's shot
sat in front of the kitty. The crowd wondered, is there enough room for Murphy
to draw, is it a weighted shot with back bowls or a full blooded drive? Murphy
went the full blooded drive and missed. One shot and match to Kelsey Cottrell
25-20.
Player Images
Check out all the images to date at www.ladiesblackdouglaspics.posterous.com - high res copies available upon request. Finals images loaded ASAP
Thank you
A BIG thank you to all of the various media who have given their personal and professional support to this event and our Club. We very much appreciate your coverage over the past four days.
Cottrell & Murphy through to final
Kelsey Cottrell defeated St John's Park club mate Anne Johns 25-11 to win semi final 1 while Karen Murphy won a classic encounter over Maria Rigby 25-24 in semi final 2.
Semi Final 1
Kelsey Cottrell (St John's Park) DEF Anne Johns (St John's Park) 25-11
Kelsey Cottrell led from start to finish in her 14 shot win over Anne Johns.
While Johns had moments of brilliance it was Cottrell's amazing consistency with
her draw that gave her the edge. From 9-5 (9 ends) Cottrell kept the lead at 4
shots or more as Johns was forced to play catch up. With the knowledge of John's
great escape of yesterday, Cottrell took her 13-9 score (14 ends) to 23-9 in the
next 6 ends and ultimately won 25-11 on 23 ends.
Semi Final 2
Maria Rigby (Darra Cementco) LOST to Karen Murphy (Cabramatta) 24-25
In a match worthy of a final, Karen Murphy led for the first 21 ends and at
one stage the lead was 8 shots (12-4 at 8 ends). You could sense though that
Rigby was far from finished and from 11-18 down (16 ends) she won 6 of the next
7 ends 9-1 to take the lead for the first time 20-19 (23 ends).
The final five ends kept the crowd enthralled as the state of play changed
with nearly every bowl. At the 28th end with scores locked at 23 all Rigby held
2 shots and game with a bowl each left to play. Murphy drove and removed one
bowl, leaving Rigby the chance to win the match with her last bowl but sadly for
Rigby the bowl fell short and wide. Rigby now led 24-23.
At the final end Rigby had two bowls covering the kitty to again hold match before a Murphy drive put the kitty in the ditch with Rigby holding one shot. Rigby gained a further shot but the closest bowl was 5ft away giving Murphy ample room to draw if good enough. With her 3rd Murphy coolly drew the shot while Rigby's last rolled on and finished in the ditch leaving Murphy a chance to draw a second and win the match. With a cool head Murphy watched her last roll a bowl or so past Rigby's closest which gave Murphy 2 shots and a wonderful victory.
Grand Final
Kelsey Cottrell (St John's Park) V Karen Murphy (Cabramatta)
Black Douglas Trivia
A win for Kelsey would give her a second title at the tender age of 21. When
she won her first title at 17 (2007) she was unable to keep the bottle of Black
Douglas that is given to the winner! Kelsey turned 21 this week (Monday) and so
is poised to win the 21st Black Douglas in the week she turns 21.
A win for Karen Murphy would give her a brilliant 3rd title to go with her
2005 and 2009 wins. This has only occurred once before with South Tweed legend
Ruth McRae winning 1991-92 and 1994.
Player Images
Check out all the images to date at www.ladiesblackdouglaspics.posterous.com - high res copies available upon request
Finals LIVE Updates
A live blog will run during the finals www.ladiesblackdouglasfinals.posterous.com and once you're at the site remember to hit refresh regularly as we'll try to update each end or thereabouts.
Also, our twitter feed will supply short updates, follow southtweedbowls or southtweedsport to get those updates.
Of course the traditional telephone (landline and mobile) is available!
Thanks to Gordon