Ladies shining bright on the greens

10:00am Tuesday 1st July 2008

BROADWAY ladies excelled in the semi-finals of the county competitions held at Vines Park.

Represented in all three matches, Broadway won both the Pairs semi-finals as well as the first Singles semi final.

Lynn Ashby put in a gritty performance to battle back from an early 7-1 deficit against Gill Cliff from Hewell to lead 14-10 after 14 ends.

She then held her nerve as the winning line approached and picked up shots steadily to run out a 21-15 winner in only her second season at the club.

The remaining semi final to be played on Saturday morning at Chester Road will see Joan Parfitt take on Sue Heming from Littleton to determine who will accompany Ashby to Leamington later this month.

Defending champions Parfitt and Sue Davies, who has earned another England call-up, were always in control against Lyn Sandoz and Sophie Inchley as they built up a commanding 17-9 lead after 15 ends.

The Gilt Edge pair were unable to make any inroads into the lead and Broadway pulled away to win 23-13 and move one step away from successfully defending their title.

They will play another Broadway pair in the final as Viv Hall and Yvonne Hopkins overcame Stourport's Joan Beddows and Emma Saunders after an extremely close game in the other last four clash.

Broadway held a 16-9 advantage after 14 ends but the Stourport pair came back strongly to tie the game 18-18 going into the last end.

Hall, though, managed to draw the shot with her second wood and this proved to be the winner as Beddows could not remove it with her final two woods.

Broadway will once again be represented in three disciplines at the National Championships at Leamington as Parfitt, Hall and Davies are already through to the Triples finals.

Broadway Blue bowed out of the EBA National Double Rink competition when they found Cheltenham too strong.

Their opponents forged ahead on both rinks to establish commanding leads as Andrew Walters found himself 15-5 down while Colin Cooper was 13-7 adrift.

Slowly but surely Walters' rink pulled themselves back into the game and they went into the last end 18-16 down when Walters managed to draw a third shot with his last wood to record a famous victory.

However, Cooper's opponents were on top form and they pulled away to record a 29-14 victory giving Cheltenham the spoils.

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