District Mixed Pairs
A new champion was to be crowned at this year’s District Pairs with the 2017 & 2018 winners Dee Anne Robertson and Sean Ingham held out of
the finals with mother-son pair of Jackie and Dale McWhinney-Shillington representing Gold Coast- Tweed.
The family duo proved their mettle in the opening round of the sectionals with a 24-18 win against Burnett District’s Cheryl Lorkin & Neil Chauvier. Not to be outmatched, Condamine’s Julie Allen- Best & Norm Head had a 28 – 8 win against the Leichardt pairing of Coral Williamson & Ray Harmsworth.
Round two had these winning sides facing off with the McWhinney-Shillington’s victorious 20-11 win against Allen-Best and Head. Meanwhile, Leichardt picked up their first win outplaying Burnett in a close game 24-20.
The Gold Coast-Tweeded reps completed their clean sweep of the sectional rounds winning 34- 13 Leichardt. In the other section, Bundaberg’s Adele Pershouse & Keith Whalley also remained undefeated winning each of their games and finishing with a margin of +54.
The final proved to be the match of the tournament with neither side allowing a lead to hold for more than a few ends. Gold Coast-Tweed started the game off quickly gaining a 6-0 lead against their Central QLD opponents. But the Bundaberg side wasn’t going down without a fight, limiting their opponents to one and two scores before levelling the match 10-10.
The momentum continued to be on Pershouse and Whalley’s side as they pushed forward to take the lead 13-10. Dale played with a trademark youthful aggressiveness, along with his mother managed
to tie the game then take the lead with a series of drives and good bowling over the next three ends.
There were to be two more another tie and two more lead changes as the game continued but it was the team from the South-East that ended taking home the Gold. Needing to score at least 3 to tie the game in the final end, the Bundaberg side only managed to pick up two losing 19-20.
