Former New Zealand representative Anne Bateman held her nerve and played three telling bowls to win $1100 in Dunedin yesterday.
The Northland bowler showed her experience when she skipped the winning team in the fifth annual Women's Classic Pairs at the North East Valley Bowling Club.
Bateman (67) teamed with Sharon McCaw (Dunedin) to beat Karen Gordon (North East Valley) and Lisa White (Wellington) 9-8 in a closely fought final.
Bateman won the New Zealand championship pairs in 2005 and represented New Zealand in the Transtasman a year later. She has won 28 Northland titles.
She is known for her cool head on the green and her team took the lead from the start and led 6-2 after five ends and 8-4 after nine of the 12 ends.
But a lapse of concentration on the next end allowed Gordon and White to get back into the game.
White (33), a silver medallist in the triples at World Bowls in 2012, was always looking for ways to get back into the game.
Her first two bowls were close to the jack and she drew a toucher with her third bowl.
The normally calm and collected Bateman unleashed a powerful drive in an attempt to blast the bowls off the head. But it missed.
This reduced Bateman's lead to one shot, 8-7, before the penultimate end.
This was the time when Bateman revealed the temperament that had made her one of the best female bowlers in the country.
White, who hit six of her seven drives, killed the end twice and had two shots on the head before Bateman played her last bowl on the 11th end.
Bateman's fast run shot flicked the jack into the ditch and she was only one down.
The scores were level at 8-all with just one end left.
McCaw (51), a seventh-year bowler from Palmerston, plays her bowls for the St Clair club in Dunedin.
She was the dominant lead in the game and beat Gordon on 10 of the ends.
But the North East Valley bowler was playing on her home green and left her best for the last end when she draped her three bowls around the jack.
The odds were stacked against Bateman because it would have been difficult to shift the three bowls that nestled on their belly close to the jack.
Bateman played a fast run shot that spread-eagled the three scoring bowls and drew the shot with her next bowl.
She had played the master touch with her last three bowls of the game to make sure her team took home the $2200 winner's purse from the $6000 prize kitty.
"It was my first money win. It was very exciting,'' McCaw said as she reflected on her skip's final three bowls.
McCaw and Bateman were used to winning cliff-hanger games on the last end.
They did the same in the semifinals when they beat three times winner Sandra Keith (Mid-Canterbury) and Kim Gawn (Taieri) 10-9 by scoring a shot on the last end.
White and Gordon won the other semifinal when they beat Malia Tavite (Forbury Park) and Judy Robertson (Taieri) 12-7. Beth Brown (Taieri) and Linley O'Callaghan (Alexandra) beat two times winner Christine Buchanan (Queenstown) and Carolyn West (Forbury Park) 11-6 in the plate final.
The Consolation final was won by the Marlborough pair of Viv Forrester and Beth Williams, who beat Shona Mann (North East Valley) and Lynn Rance (Green Island) 13-5.
Women's Classic Pairs
Crunch games
Semifinals: Lisa White (Wellington), Karen Gordon (North East Valley) beat Malia Tavite (Forbury Park), Judy Robertson (Taieri) 12-7; Anne Bateman (Northland), Sharon McCaw (St Clair) beat Sandra Keith (Mid-Canterbury), Kim Gawn (Taieri) 10-9.
Final: Bateman, McCaw beat White, Gordon 9-8.
