Garioch bowler reaches mixed pairs final in World Indoor Bowls Championships
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Garioch bowler Carla Banks has made it into to the final of the mixed pairs in the ‘Just’ World Indoor Bowls Championships.
Banks, who partnered with English veteran Rob Paxton, beat Katherine Rednall, who was representing England, and Scotland's David Gourlay MBE 6-6, 9-4 in today's semi-final at Potters Resort near Great Yarmouth.
The first set was a hard fought exchange with Rednall and Gourlay counting a double on the last end to draw it 6-6.
On the first two ends of the second set Rednall and Gourlay dropped a full house of 4 followed by a single and that 5-0 advantage to Banks and Paxton was always the difference in the set.
They went on to win 9-4 and book their place in the title decider, which will be held on Tuesday at 3pm.
It is a first world championships final for Banks, while Paxton will be looking to win his third mixed pairs title.
Meanwhile, in the quarter-finals of the women’s world matchplay singles on Saturday evening Banks was narrowly beaten by Laura Daniels from Wales.
In the close game Banks took the first set 8-7, but Daniels came back and won the second 7-6 and the tie-breaker 2-1.
In a back and forth first set Banks managed to hold on to the result after Daniels scored a double and just missed out on a set winning count.
The second set was the same with the advantage switching between the players.
At one point Daniels trailed 4-5 with three ends to play but then scored a double and single to lead 7-5 going into the set decider, which saw Banks only able to muster a single.
In the tie-breaker there was again nothing to separate the players.
They both won one end each and on the decider Banks rolled in a perfect first bowl just inches from the jack.
The reply from Daniels fell just marginally short of the count. The head never changed, then with her last bowl Daniels played into the head, connected with the jack and to everyone’s surprise, the jack rebounded up the rink on the forehand side and left Daniels holding the shot to win the match.
Daniels will go on to face England's Rebecca Willgress in the semi-finals on Wednesday.
The matches can be viewed online at www.youtube.com/user/WorldBowlsTour
The latter stages of the championships will be shown live on the BBC from tomorrow.
Related story: Mixed results for bowlers at World Indoor Bowls Championships
