The 2019 Mixed Pairs Championship has started with round 1 matches completed. Defending Champions – Bruce and Denise Lidbury – had to fight hard to overcome Rose Farrington and Allan Etheredge. Farrington and Etheredge started well but found the consistency from the Lidburys difficult to counter. The Lidburys (below) set up a good lead but Farrington and Etheredge fought back to see the final score 19 – 14 in favour of the defending Champions.
Last year’s runners up – Rita and Noel Downie (above) – also survived the first round but not before holding off a strong finish from Di and Col Fletcher. The Downies had the better of the early ends but the scores were kept close when the Fletchers managed to score 5 shots on the 7th end. At this stage the score was 8 – 7 to the Downies. They then extended their lead to 18 – 9 before the Fletchers fought back. The Downies held on to win 20 – 16.
In the closest match of the round, between Michael and Di Challice and Margaret and Ray Downey, an extra end was needed to determine a winner. The Challices had the better of the early exchanges and moved to a 11 – 6 lead after 10 ends. The momentum then swung to the Downeys who won 6 of the next 8 ends to set up a good 19 – 13 lead. The game then took a twist when the Challices scored 6 shots on the 18th end to draw level at 19 all! The teams then shared the last two ends to see the score at 21 all with an extra end needed to determine the winner. The Downeys prevailed to grab the narrowest of wins at 22 – 21!
In the final game Chris Roxby and Stan Peck had a good win over Ian Wratten and Carol Williams. Their win was based on an excellent start that saw them race to a 14 – 1 lead after 7 ends and then 17 – 4 after 11 ends. Wratten and Williams did fare better from this point but the lead was too big and Roxby and Peck ran out winners by 23 to 13.
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