Manx Ladies in the September Festival
Another September Festival has come and gone, with the weather being unkind for most of the week, although we did for once have a dry and sunny finals day.
In the main competition ten of our ladies got through to the last 32 played at Nobles 1 on Thursday afternoon, but despite some good performances only four made it through to the last sixteen.
Caroline Parker had played well all week and continued to fight in the last 16, eventually coming through 21-17 against Sally Clee (Wrockwardine Wood), while Mary Moffatt faced Julie Pearce (Meole Brace), who had been impressive all week, just losing out 21-19. Lyn Bolton was involved in a ding-dong battle with Dawn Bray (Ossett Flying Horse), taking the game 21-20 to progress to the quarter-final, while Helen Martin lost out 21-16 to Lynsey Gorman (NBQV).
In the quarter-finals Caroline came up against the eventual winner, Angela Gaut, and found it was just one game too far, going out 21-11, while Lyn met festival perennial Veronica Lyon (Beechams Unison), and had another close encounter, getting through to the semi-finals 21-19.
Lyn’s progress was halted by Anita Richardson (Hoylake and Melrose) who went through 21-11 to meet Angela Gaut in the final, where the two of them had a nail-biting battle, Angela taking the trophy 21-20.
Congratulations go to all the Manx ladies’, particularly Lyn Bolton who picked up the Blanche Kaye Trophy for the best Manx Lady.
Thursday morning saw the final stages of the Ladies’ Tourism Competition with three Manx ladies’ reaching the quarter-finals. Unfortunately two of them faced each other, with Elaine Moore pipping Philippa Taylor 21-20, while Margaret Tasker also had a close match against Julie Pearce before going out 21-20. In the semi-final it was Elaine’s turn to face Julie Pearce, the Meole Brace lady going through to the final 21-19. It had been a morning of close matches and that continued into the final where Alison Cotton, facing club-mate Julie, came through to win 21-20.
In the Open Doubles Elaine Moore and Kim Hargraves reached the quarter-finals, where they went out 11-7 to the eventual runners-up, Craig Grant (Thongsbridge) and Duncan Reeves (Netherton Cons), while in the VisitIsleofman.com Flyer, Helen Martin went out in the semi-final to Michael Coupe (Hoghton BC).
In the quarter-finals of the Ladies’ Doubles Caroline Parker and Veronica Lyon beat Marjorie Haigh (Hightown Sports) and Joyce Jones (Syke BC) 11-6 to set up a semi-final meeting with Lynda Cadamy and Sandra Beveridge (Lansil) who came through their quarter-final against Debbie Leece and Carleen Doody-Millington (Meole Brace) 11-7.
In the semi-final it was Lynda and Sandra who progressed to the final, 11-4, where they lost to Jacqueline Owen (Whitefield BC) and Eileen Pye (Acregate) 11-7..