Desborough buckle

Desborough women buckled under the cut and thrust of a quarter-final clash in the national Yetton Trophy at North Walsham, Norfolk.

The pressure was on from the start as the Berkshire team sought to establish dominance in the early exchanges but fortunes were mixed as the rinks skipped by Mary Price and Lorraine Woodley found the target straight away.

The international bowler had Maggie Scrace at No.3 and Pam Armstrong and Eileen Devonald-Batt front end as they kicked off with four shots in the first end and galloped away to a 14-2 lead after eight ends.

Alongside them Lorraine Woodley, Cathy Rogers, Midge Hawkins and Morag Goodchild had a similar score line with a 10-4 lead at the same point, but from there the rolls reversed and the opposition came back  to lead 16-11 in the 13th end.

Val Linton Phare and Yvonne Tilley were skipping Desborough’s other two rinks and found the going tough as North Walsham countered with an enterprising first phase.

Playing on rink 1, Val Linton Phare, Norah Holder, Rhona Pike and Brenda Clements were 16-4 down after 10 ends and then lost five ends on the trot to fall a further 10 shots behind.

Yvonne Tilley and her foursome of Helen Copeland, Jenny Morgan and Carol Low were 24-7 down after 11 ends but dramatically got seven in the very next end and with it hopes of a comeback.

At this stage there were 17 shots between the teams overall and sadly only Mary Price and her rink held a lead for Desborough.

Lorraine Woodley and her team got the better of their opponents in the  last third of their match but fell two short at the close and, despite a resurgence in the last six ends, Val Linton Phare’s rink were too far behind to get close.

Yvonne Tilley’s quartet fared better but were still 12 shots off the pace and it was only Mary Price and friends who held it together for a 25-9 win.
North Walsham ran out winners  94-80 and grabbed a place in the semi-finals.

Rink scores (Desborough scores first): B Clements, R Pike, N Holder, V Linton-Phare 14-30; C Low, J Morgan, H Copeland, Y Tilley 19-31; M Goodchild, M Hawkins, C Rogers, L Woodley 22-24; E Devonald-Batt, P Armstrong, M Scrace, M Price 25-9.