Former rivals become best buds
Linda Morish and Dawn Denford used to skip against each other at District champs, Linda for Kawana and Dawn for Aspley. Since their recent switch to Pine Rivers, they’ve forged a successful team. “I’m very blessed, I’ve never won a Queensland state championship before, I’m over the moon,” an excited Dawn Denford said, bowing her head to accept her first-ever state gold medal from BQ chairman Ron Chambers.
Skip Dawn and lead Linda Morish started playing together specifically for the 2014 Champion of Club Champions, both fairly new members at Club Pine Rivers, after being rivals for many years on the greens at various District and State competitions.
“I used to skip for Kawana, Dawn used to skip for Aspley, I joined Club Pine Rivers about two years ago, and Dawn about one year ago, and we decided to try playing together for the Champion of Club Champions,” Morish said.
“There was no arguments over who would skip, I knew Dawn liked to skip, and I’m used to playing singles, so I was happy to play lead, we both know our jobs, and we respect each other,” Morish said.
“Linda is an amazing player, it’s nice to have such a great partner, I trust her with my life!” Denford said.
Both women describe themselves as “full time bowlers”, although Linda throws in a bit of art and mahjong when she gets a chance.
Both are delighted they made the switch to Club Pine Rivers, “the best club in the country, we love the shade and we love the carpet,” Denford said.
The Pine Rivers V Mareeba Memorial women’s pairs final today at Toombul Bowls Club was very close and could have gone either way, the final score being 21-19 after 21 ends.
“We struggled at the beginning, we were down 7-0, then 15-7, but we got ourselves back in the game on the 16th end, the score was 16-16, and we tried our darndest, but they just played better than us today,” beaten skip Sue Brady said.
Sue remembered the last time she came up against Linda Morish, playing singles at an Australian titles in Adelaide, 13 years ago in 2001.
“She did me like a dinner then, too!” Sue smiled.
Mareeba Memorial had to work hard to win Section 1 and earn the final’s berth, swatting off strong Monto pair Gwen Stubbs and Bronwyn Torrens.
“We did very well for the first half of the game, it was 9-9, but then we had four bad ends…”, Torrens said.
Stubbs and Torrens contested 2006 Champion of Club Champion Pairs at Bribie Island, so they weren’t coming into the state titles cold, they had a pretty fair idea of what to expect.
“It was definitely easier second time around, it was a great experience, we really enjoyed it,” Torrens said.
“When you play against strong players, it improves your own game, I can’t wait to do it all again next year!
“Our next big tournament is District Sides 2015, Monto is part of Port Curtis district.”
Runner up to Club Pine Rivers in Section 2 was Mt Gravatt’s Debbie Logan and Christine Baxter.
Debbie will be back at Toombul tomorrow to play Singles, representing Group 2.
The other women’s teams playing State Pairs were from Ipswich United Services, South Toowoomba, Tewantin-Noosa and Mackay City.
