Two Green Island fours contest final

There was an extra shine to the gold on the Green Island ladies’ club uniform when the Lyn Rance skipped ladies four went back-to-back with the Dunedin Centre women’s fours championship title at St Kilda yesterday.

The Rance quartet was one of three Green Island fours teams to go into to battle for the title.

All three reached the semifinal stage and two progressed to the final.

The Rance four containing Shirley Mercer, Margaret Hoad and Lynn Baird contested the final again clubmates, an in-form Sarah Ibbotson skipped four that included Shannon McEwan, Lesley Dabinett and Lee Grigg.

Ibbotson applied the pressure from the start, scoring a handy two shots on the first end, but the Rance quartet proved equal to the task and hit back to score three on the second end and set the scene for the match.

Such was the pressure applied on Ibbotson’s team, it was only able to score on six of the 15 ends, and it was only the seven shots it scored on the fourth end that kept it in the match as the Rance skipped four clawed its way back with consistency.

By the midway stage the game was all tied up at 10-10.

Two strong ends from Ibbotson had her team up 15-10 over the next two ends and appearing in control. But, showing cool heads under pressure, the Rance four clawed its way back over the remaining five ends to record a 21-16 victory.

Victory was sweeter for Rance as it became her 25th centre title.

Ibbotson was full of praise for her opponents in the final.

"It’s a great day for Green Island and great to be part of Lyn’s 25th title," she said.

While it was title number 25 for Rance, it was title number one for Mercer, a second for Baird and an eighth for Hoad.

The battle for the men’s title was another epic encounter between the Oliver Mason skipped Forbury Park quartet including Glenn Murtagh, Nigel Thompson and Duane White and the Eion Willis skipped four from St Clair including Brent McEwan, Joe Coleman and Craig Chapman. Mason took Forbury Park to back-to-back victory for the Dunedin Centre fours title also.

After some classic play in the opening rounds St Clair jumped out to a 7-2 lead. But at the conclusion of the eighth end many at the green were looking around for Chinese good luck charms as the score was locked up at 8-8.

It was 10-10 after 12 ends of the 15-end encounter. Then the Forbury four scored three shots on the following two ends to hold a nervous 13-10 advantage going into the final end.

Tight play from the Forbury four contained St Clair and blocked any opportunity to register a big number and steal victory from the jaws of defeat. Forbury won 13-11.

For Mason and Thompson it was their third centre title and for White and Murtagh, their fourth.