Kelsey Cottrell became the first woman to win three Hong Kong International Bowls Classic Pairs titles.
Cottrell, a 23-year-old student from New South Wales, won the competition with Julie Keegan in 2009 and 2010. This time she did it with new partner Carla Odgers, after beating Val Smith and Mandy Boyd from New Zealand in the Final last Sunday, Nov 17.
Throughout the whole competition, the Australian team only lost one game, which was against Singapore in the first game of the round-robin stage.
“It was a very close game,” said Cottrell, recalling that early loss. “We didn’t have the best of starts this week, but we got better and better on the way.”
After that they were invincible and beat all other teams to top their group. They met England in the Semi-finals and beat them from behind to reach the Final.
New Zealand, who has World No.4 Val Smith as lead, won all their games in the round-robin stage and beat Scotland comfortably in the Semi-finals.
“Our opponents are a very good players so we need to explore their weakness,” said Cottrell. “So we decided to stretch the head a bit longer in a hope that this will help our strength and maybe put them out of rhythm.”
And proved that the strategy worked quite well because Smith was seemingly out of depth throughout the game and this piled huge pressure on 21-year-old skipper Boyd.
Despite the score being tied at 5-5 after six ends, the Australians picked up the momentum and won the last three ends to take the set.
In the second set, the Australians kept their good form by taking three shots in the first end.
“The first set could have gone either way because it was really really close. Getting a three on the first set really helped because it put them under a lot of pressure to come back,” Cottrell said.
The Aussies quickly opened up a lead of 10:1 after five ends, but the determined Kiwis fought back strongly to take seven shots in the next two ends.
“The critical point was when we lost the three and the four, we keep our composure and stay calm. With two ends to go we knew we just needed to win another end to win the title,” said Cottrell. And they did keep their nerve to take one shot each from the next two ends to win the title.
A delighted Cottrell said after the game that: “I am excited to win the game, actually I am excited just to be here. Hopefully I will return next year.”
Like the Men’s Pairs winners—Scottish Open champion Iain McLean and Robert Grant—she believes that the victory will enhance her chance of representing Australia at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow next year.
In fact, all teams that will take part in the Commonwealth Games are using this Classic to evaluate their players for the competition as the Hong Kong greens carry a similar characteristic with those in Glasgow.
Claudius Lam is an Officer with the Hong Kong Lawn Bowls Association.
