The pride of Garfield Rose Shaw proudly displays the WGBD Champion of Champions Trophy that she won at Traralgon last week.
GARFIELD’S Rose Shaw is the West Gippsland Bowls Division Ladies Champion of Champions after winning four games against the region’s best last week.
Shaw is the first winner from Garfield since the new WGBD was formed and follows in the steps of club legend Joan Garvey who had numerous successes through the ’80s and ’90s. This was Shaw’s fourth attempt at the title.
Held at the Traralgon Bowls Club and Traralgon RSL the tournament pitted 16 Club Champions against each other in a knock-out format over two days. On day one Shaw defeated her Longwarry and Warragul opponents to progress to the last four.
Things weren’t looking good for Shaw in her semi-final battle with Boolarra’s Janice Whelan, who led 24/18 and needed just one more shot for victory. The Garfield bowler dug deep to take eight shots from the next four ends to make the final with a 26/24 victory. It was the words of advice from Garvey that were ringing in Shaw’s ears.
“Joan always says you’re never out of it so I just hung in there,” Shaw said.
In the final against Yallourn’s Jo Martin, Shaw once again found herself behind the eight-ball, falling behind after 13 ends before fighting back strongly. Garfield’s finest hit the lead shortly after and held on for a 25/22 win after 29 ends.
Coached by her husband, fellow Garfield member Malcolm, Shaw displayed fine tactical awareness to take her opponents out of their comfort zone by bowling longer ends.
“Most of those players bowl on very fast greens and bowl shorter ends,” Shaw explained.
“I just thought I’d try something different and it seemed to work.”
Shaw will now represent the WGBD against the winners from East, North and South Gippsland on March 3.
-David Nagel
