Lilian Slinger Pre-Festival
There was an entry of thirty-three for the Pre-Festival ladies’ singles, sponsored by the family of Lilian Slinger, and played at Mooragh Park.
Although the event started in reasonable weather, it got worse as the day progressed and by mid afternoon was quite cold and very wet. It was to be hoped the weather would improve for the Festival taking place over the next five days.
The field consisted of local players and some old familiar faces over for the festival, many of whom had not visited the green before and were very impressed with its surroundings.
In the first round there were some close games, four of them finishing on 21-18, Jenny Moore, Karen Hill. Rachel Quirk and Sue Sinclair all coming through by that score against Lynsey Gorman, Sarah Edmondson, Eileen Pye and Fiona Kennish respectively.
In the second round Elaine Moore lost out 21-16 to Karen Hill while Lorraine Hirst came through against Joan Jolly by the same score.
In the quarter-finals, Madison McMullen, following wins against Mary Alderson and Linda Burns, reached a very creditable 16 before going out to Nicola Gilmore, while Jenny Moore and Lorraine Hirst had a real ding-dong battle. The game was even for the first six ends with Lorraine just ahead 12-11, when Jenny took control winning eight of the next nine ends to lie 20-13. Lorraine re-grouped winning the next five ends to close to 19-20, before Jenny took the next end, and the match.
Quarter-finals: Nicola Gilmore 21, Madison McMullen 16; Sharon Rigden 21, Janet Monk 8; Jenny Moore 21, Lorraine Hirst 19; Rachel Quirk 21, Karen Hill 9.
In the semi-finals, which were not so one sided as the scores suggest, Jenny and Sharon both came through 21-11 – jenny against Rachel and Sharon against Nicola.
Jenny made the better start , leading 14-9 after eight ends when six singles put Sharon ahead 15-14. The game was evenly poised at 17-17 when two 2’s gave Jenny the title 21-17.
Association vice-president,. Heather Horsburgh, thanked all those who had entered, those who had helped in any way with the smooth running of the afternoon and the Slinger family for their continued sponsorship of the event, before introducing Mr Norman Slinger to make the presentations.