Oxford City & County’s Katherine Hawes had a tremendous run in the women’s National Singles Championship at Royal Leamington Spa before bowing out in the semi-finals.
Hawes chalked up four resounding victories to reach the last four where she faced Jayne Croxall, of Mansfield Ladies.
And the ten-time Oxfordshire champion gave the Notts bowler a terrific battle before going down 21-19.
Croxall went on to lift the Alpha Rose Bowl, beating Sally Butcher (Borough of Eye, Suffolk) 21-17 in the final.
Hawes, who was a member of the City & County side who finished runners-up in the National Triples Championship earlier in the week, had breezed through the first four rounds.
She opened up by despatching Doreen Humphreys (Great Hollands, Berkshire) 21-6 in the first round where Banbury Borough’s Margaret Morris bowed out 21-7 to Jenny Dawson (Topsham, Devon).
Hawes was in equally imperious form in round two where she crushed Liz McMillan (County Arts, Norfolk) 21-7.
She then eased past Marilyn Crane (Frinton, Essex) 21-14 before brushing aside Lisa Smith (Avenue, Warwickshire) 21-9 in the quarter-finals.
Meanwhile, Banbury Central’s Carole Galletly and Caroline Campion bowed out of the National Pairs Championship with a 13-12 defeat by Mansfield Ladies’ Janice Wilkinson and Jane Baxter-Codrington in the second round.
Banbury Central’s Pamela Shepherd and Maureen Cox saw their challenge in the National 55 & Over Pairs come to an end in the second round with a 19-14 defeat by Cheltenham Spa’s Margaret McColl and Pam Margrett.
In the first round, they had beaten Barbara Cornell and Patricia Terry (Goodwood, Leicestershire) 20-13.
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