It was an exciting day today with the St Ives team taking out the Senior Fours title for the North Shore District.
After getting soaked to the skin on Tuesday and not quite finishing the match, the ladies returned today in beautiful sunshine. The first task was to complete the 2 remaining ends from Tuesday's game. After defeating the Neutral Bay team, the ladies went on to play a team from Mosman. The St Ives ladies (Sue Byrne, Bev Barton, Jan Woodcock & Di McBryde) played well as a team with each putting in some great bowls.
​The St Ives ladies meet a team from DeeWhy next Saturday in the Regional playoff to see who will represent Region 15 in the State Championships. Good luck St Ives!

St Ives hosted the District Senior Women’s Triples on 7th & 8th November.  Here is the report from our District Match Committee.......
Conditions on the opening day were tricky, with the fast green and a gusty wind. By the end of the day we had the semifinalists decided, with Dawn Spinks’s team from Neutral Bay set to take on Di McBryde’s team from St Ives, and the other semi an all-Mosman clash — Julie Hayden’s team versus De Brown’s team.
In Tuesday’s semi-finals, St Ives posted a convincing win over Neutral Bay 27-17, and Julie Hayden’s team got the better of their club-mates 29-17.
In the afternoon’s final, the St Ives team continued the form they had been in all championship, with Lead Sue Byrne consistently on or around the jack, and second Bev Barton and skip Di McBryde backing her up well. After 9 ends, St Ives were dominating to lead 17-1.
Mosman then won the next 5 ends with modest scores, to creep up to 8-17, only to see St Ives increase their lead on the scoreboard to 21-8 after 17 ends and look decidedly on their way to victory. However, the Mosman team of Robyn Novakovich, Denise Owen and Julie Hayden kept up the fight, and had the spectators on the edge of their seats as the St Ives margin steadily slipped away.
Going into the final end, there were only three shots in it, and after the skips’ first bowls Mosman was holding 2 of the 3 shots they needed to force an extra end. Skip Julie did her best to move the jack back and bring more of her team’s bowls into the count; when her bowl just missed the target, the St Ives supporters breathed a sigh of relief and skip Di elected not to play her last bowl. Final score: 23-22.
​Our State Women’s Triples & Senior Women’s Triples champions will take on the Manly-Warringah champions in the Regional Play-Off this Saturday morning at Pittwater Bowling Club.

Vicki Bartrop did brilliantly in the District Singles this year. She had some very close games to win through to the finals.
The finals were held at St Ives on Wednesday 2nd June - what an amazing game to watch. Vicki played Jenny Hepburn from Neutral Bay. The two ladies were neck and neck all the way through the final. At 24 all, Jenny prevailed to win 25:24.
Congratulations to both ladies for wonderful bowling!
​

Bowls NSW and Women’s Bowls NSW had issued a directive suspending all bowls activities including social bowls.  Subsequently Bowls NSW has issued another directive stressing that the suspension applies to all bowling activities and expanded it to include roll ups/practice. 
 
At St Ives we believe that our members must follow this directive and if you come to the club for roll up/practice YOU DO SO AT YOUR OWN RISK.
 
We face unprecedented circumstances and these measures are aimed at preventing the spread of the COVID-19 virus and avoiding the lock downs we are now seeing in other countries.  So we ask all members to follow the directives issued by Bowls NSW and Women’s Bowls NSW.

Kevin Latham

Bowls NSW and Women’s Bowls NSW have jointly advised today that “all association events, competition events, club events and tournaments and this includes social bowls” are suspended effective immediately.  See the announcement attached.
 
This means that both men’s and women’s Pennants are suspended and organized social men’s bowls tomorrow and women’s social bowls on Thursday are cancelled.  However, on both days green 2 will be prepared and jacks and mats put out so that if you want to come and roll up you can.  It is a personal decision.  Please remember the advice we have been given regarding keeping a social distance (1.5 metre) from other people.

Kevin Latham / Sue Byrne

What an exciting couple of days with the District Open Pairs and District Senior Pairs being played at Asquith, West Pymble and Lindfield. St Ives had 3 pairs in the Senior event at Asquith, with all 3 getting through the first round. 
Di McBryde and Shizuko Hashimoto won through to the semi-finals being played at Lindfield on Sunday morning. Unfortunately, Shizuko was unwell so Jan Woodcock very kindly played as her substitute. A huge congratulations to Di, Shizuko and Jan for fantastic bowls in all games.
Jan and Di won the semi-finals in the morning. They then played a very exciting final on Sunday afternoon and came away with the win. This means that Di and Shizuko will play in the regional playoffs in June to see who represents Region 15 at the state championships in August. This is the 2nd year running for a St Ives team to hold this trophy. We are very proud of you ladies!

The St Ives Senior Pairs team of Sue Byrne and Vicki Bartrop came away winners today from the regional playoff. Having won the District Senior Pairs title in February, Sue and Vicki had to playoff against the Manly Warringah Seaforth team of Peta and June. 
Sue and Vicki played great consistent bowls to lead 11/6 after 11 ends. On the 12th end, St Ives picked up a 4 after Seaforth skip just missed the jack with her last shot. Sue put down some great lead bowls on the 15th end. Seaforth skip drew shot then picked up jack and took it back to St Ives. 
On the 17th end, June drew the shot to win the end – a big cheer from crowd! 18th end 21/7 . All over 22/7 after 19 ends.
Sue and Vicki now head off the state championships in September.