In his first foray into the @Imagine Cruising World Indoor Bowls Singles Championship courtesy of being a WBT Top 16 ranked player, local hopeful Wayne Willgress came up against the only woman in the competition – the ‘mighty pocket rocket’ - also from Norfolk - Katherine Rednall
Rednall is something of a phenomenon in the sport and can hold her own with most of the top male players and in the last match of the day she proved why she is worthy of her place in this event.
Rednall and Willgress know each other well and over the years have met twice, sharing one win apiece and that this match would again be hotly contested, and, like some previous matches today, it certainly kept the audience entertained with massive shots played throughout the game by both of them.
In the opening set, Katherine led 6-4 after five ends, but a run of 1, 3 and 1 pushed Wayne 9-6 ahead on the penultimate end.
Katherine, a ‘mercurial robot’ as she was called, rolled in – what could have been a potential full house to take the set, but when the end finished she had to settle for a double and narrowly missed out 9-8.
In the second set, the upper hand changed over the course of the match with both players outdoing the other. They tied 3-3 after five ends, and with one end remaining, Wayne held a narrow 5-4 lead which required Katherine to score a double to take the match to a tie break.
That option looked on for Katherine, but Wayne soon put paid to that notion and countered with a single which gave him the result 6-4 and he now looks forward to a 2nd Round match against World Ranked number 3 Stewart Anderson on Wednesday 18th January.
Match Result -
Wayne Willgress (Eng/14) bt Katherine Rednall (Eng) 9-8, 6-4;
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