THEY may be a new pairing, but there is nothing green about Traralgon Returned and Services League lawn bowls duo Jan Kirby and Margaret Gibbins.
The division three twosome traveled to Leongatha on Sunday to contest the State Pairs Strezelecki region final against South Gippsland, after winning the West Gippsland section.
Holding a one-shot lead on the 18th end, disaster struck for the Traralgon team as they yielded seven shots to their San Remo opponent and lost the fixture.
Despite the narrow loss, Traralgon RSL women’s chair Rosie Lorenz said the newly formed unit had been a revelation.
“Jan’s a very good lead and Margaret is an exceptionally good skip and they just seem to work well together,” Lorenz said.
The Leongatha venue issued a new challenge to the experienced bowlers, as they had never played on synthetic before.
Before the fixture Lorenz was confident Kirby and Gibbins could handle the conditions, but the surface was variable.
“They’re both accomplished bowlers; they’ll adapt beautifully,” she said.
“The only problem is that the South Gippsland players are used to playing on the synthetic at Leongatha.
“It’s a weird combination synthetic, because sometimes if it’s cloudy it can be extremely fast but if the sun comes out it slows down, so your bowl can be halfway down the green and it stops.”
The pair won their way through the West Gippsland division, beating all comers from the area in the knock out qualification process.
The winning San Remo team will move into the state final 16 and will play in Bendigo from 11 to 17 April.
