With four points at stake in fours competition, the South held a tentative 14-12 lead, with everything hinging on the second of two matches in the mixed fours.
The South won the first of two sets with a convincing 7-3 win, but the North made it clear that it was not about to roll over, with Selina Goddard playing sublime draw shots to help turn the tide and hand the North a 5-4 victory to force a tie-break.
Goddard once again set her team up with two shots right on the jack from lead, but the South’s Sarah Scott sent down two absolute bombs to move Goddard’s two shots and sandwich the jack between her two shot bowls.
Tony Grantham, the third for North, managed to open up the head but the South still held two shots with just the skips Mike Galloway (North) and Andrew Kelly (South) to play their two bowls.
Galloway took out one shot, only for Kelly to draw back for two — the match and the tournament coming down to the final bowls from each skip.
And when Galloway drew wide it was game, set and tournament to the South.
Playing in front of the national selectors Scott was arguably one of the players of the tournament, going through unbeaten and playing superbly.
Drawn to play Commonwealth Games representative and 2021 national singles champion Nicole Toomey in singles play, Scott was undaunted at the prospect taking, out the first set 8-5.
Toomey bounced back to claim the second set 8-3 and force a tie-break. And in a tit-for tat battle, Scott secured victory when her final bowl came to rest on top of Toomey’s shot bowl to clinch the tie-break and victory.
Scott, a member of the New Zealand high performance squad, was thrilled to get the win under her belt and the points for the South.
"It felt good to get a wee plant on that back bowl there," Scott said of her winning delivery.
Scott was back in action when contesting the mixed pairs with North East Valley clubmate Mike Kernaghan. The pair defeated the combination of Toomey and Seamus Curtin 6-3, 9-1.
Unseeded going into the tournament, the South’s Jonty Horwell faced a hugh hurdle first up when drawn to play high-performance squad member Seamus Curtin in the opening round of the singles.
Curtin won in straight sets, 10-3, 8-5.
But it was as a lead in the pairs and fours that Horwell excelled with some superb draw shots on the head — something selectors will be taking note of for future tournaments.
The South’s Andrew Kelly was another player to go through the tournament undefeated. He beat his Commonwealth Games team-mate Tony Grantham in the singles 7-5, 4-9, 2-9 and skipped superbly to secure victory in the triples and fours.
From the North, Leeane Poulson, Mark Noble, Selina Goddard and Curtin were models of consistency on drawing shot and giving their southern opponents plenty to think about.
