St Andrews women booked their place in the final of the Somerset County Fear Cup with an outstanding team performance to beat Ilminster at Watchet on Sunday.
In scorching heat, with the semi-final reduced to 15 ends instead of 21, they wore down Ilminster’s resistance after a tense start and raced away to finish up on all three rinks, winning by 24 shots.
Carolina Venn, playing her first game of the season after surgery, made a solid comeback on Meg Favis’s rink, who won eight ends in a row to finish 17 shots clear.
Two fives at crucial stages of the match helped Becky McMillan’s quartet win by three, while Ann Campbell completed the clean sweep with a six-shot victory, cheered on by the usual large contingent of supporters.
In the final at Ashcombe Park on Sunday, Saints will play Purnell, who beat Yatton in the other semi-final at Chew Stoke.
St Andrews had a great week at the Clevedon Open Tournament, with Becky McMillan retaining her singles title and a team from the club winning the men’s triples.
The unstoppable McMillan conceded only 11 shots in three matches as she won the singles for the second year running.
In the final of the men’s triples, with Jack Angove standing in well for Barrie Forse, who had an indoor commitment, father-and-son Lee and Sam Stocker steered the Saints team to a convincing win over a Clevedon team playing on their home green.
From 6-3 down, Saints picked up a four and some outstanding play by all three resulted in their opponents conceding with two ends to go, 11 shots behind.
The St Andrews indoor team just missed out on a place in the quarter-finals of the Fantastic Fives when they lost on the last wood of the game away to Clarrie Dodos on Saturday.
Results
Somerset women’s, Fear Cup semi-final (at Watchet): St Andrews 55 Ilminster 31: J Forse, A Powell, D Baker, R McMillan 16-13; D Johns, M Frost, J Pitman, A Campbell 16-12; C Venn, J McMillan, J Smith, M Favis 23-6.
Weston & Dist Over-60s League, St Andrews 81 (2) Portishead RBL 112 (18): A Lay, R Brereton, J Keay 14-11; K Uglow, R Flaxman, A Ware 16-20; D Reynolds, R Potter, G Wride 12-17; G Cooper, N Bassett, D Favis 10-17; L Fisher, R Venn, C Howard 16-20; J Fenn, A Dawes, A Cooper 13-27.
Women’s DRT League, St Andrews 48 (10) Nailsea 35 (0): G Holborow, W O’Sullivan, S Sinclair, R McMillan 18-16; C Andrews, M Tovey, D Baker, J Pitman 11-9; J Andrews, J Webb, B Mangan, A Campbell 19-10.
Clevedon Open Tournament: women’s singles R McMillan (St Andrews) 21 C Pearce (Clevedon) 6; women’s pairs K Taylor/M King (Congresbury) 20 R McMillan (St Andrews)/M Edwards (Thornfield, Rugby) 9; men’s triples J Angove/B Forse (St Andrews), L Stocker (Clevedon), S Stocker (St Andrews) 18 F Ham, G Aldridge, J Branfield (Clevedon) 7.
EIBA Fantastic Fives indoor regional final, Clarrie Dodos 5 St Andrews Seagulls 4 (agg 36-38): singles B Forse 7-16; fours Judy Forse, K Uglow, M Campbell, Ann Campbell 14-3; triples J Forse, M Campbell, A Campbell 7-8; pairs Uglow, B Forse 10-10.
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