Midlands Patricia Speechley and Lynette Lock capture 2022-2023 BHBR Women’s Pairs title

Midlands Patricia Speechley and Lynette Lock won the 2022-2023 BHBR Women’s Pairs event on Thursday, 26th January 2023 at Sebastopol Bowling Club.

They played Victoria’s Donna Leeson and Helene Stenning in an outstanding final, with the match only decided by an umpire’s measure on the final end.

The match was even early with the Midlands duo leading 5-4 after six ends before the Victoria pair scored 4 shots on the next two ends to lead 8-5 after eight ends.

Patricia and Lynette upped the ante grabbing 3, 3 and 1 on the next three ends, racing to a 12-8 lead with just four ends to play.

Then, it was Donna and Helene’s turn to dig deep, which they did, snaring 2, 1 and 1 on the next three ends to tie the scores at 12 apiece going into the last end.

All 4 bowlers peppered the jack in the final end with skips Patricia and Helene going blow for blow in an exciting finish.

With the jack surrounded within an inch of its life by both Midlands and Victoria bowls at the completion of the final end, the umpire was required to decide who would be crowned the 22-23 BHBR Women’s Pairs champions.

After a few tense moments, Patricia and Lynette got the umpire’s nod in a thrilling finale.

The match was played in great spirits and Patricia was elated to get their first title win, especially playing with Lynnette.

“Well, it’s my first title win and first time playing with Lynn in pairs and it’s her first title, so we’re ecstatic,” Patricia said.

“We played against great competitors in Donna and Helene.”

“Donna leads in pennant, so she was a hard opponent, and Helene, well what can you say, she’s just fabulous.”

“It came down to a measure on the last end and we were lucky enough to get the result, so we are very happy after it was 12-all on the last end.”

>>> View 22-23 BHBR Women’s Pairs results here

Congratulations to Patricia and Lynette and good luck representing the region in April at Bendigo.

22-23 BHBR WOMEN’S PAIRS FINALS

Thursday, 26th January 2023
Sebastopol Bowling Club

QUARTER FINALS

H Cyrulo/T Wylie 12-15 D Hampson/M Tait
A Draffen /Sarah Braybrook 12-24 D Leeson/H Stenning
J Lindsay/B Ryan 13-14 T Odgers/A Rayner
L McArthur/D Taylor-Erwin 13-14 P Speechley/L Lock

SEMI FINALS

D Hampson/M Tait 12-14 D Leeson/H Stenning
T Odgers/A Rayner 14-16 P Speechley/L Lock

FINAL

D Leeson/H Stenning 12-13 P Speechley/L Lock