Carole Galletly’s bold bid to capture the two-wood singles title at the Bowls England National finals was dashed on Wednesday.

The Banbury Central bowler had cruised through to the quarter-finals at Leamington Spa with three impressive victories before facing Hannah Overton, from the Whittesey Manor club.

And it was the Huntingdonshire representative who edged a nailbiting match 14-13 to extinguish Galletly’s hopes.

Her victim in the first round was Jill Welch (Daventry), dispatched 17-8, followed by respective 19-6 and 15-10 wins over Lillian Fletcher (Notts) and Christine Briggs (Middlesex) in rounds two and three.

Galletly’s conqueror was hammered 18-5 in the semi-final by Ellen Falkner of St Neots, who went on to take the title by beating Devon’s Muriel Scott 15-12 in the final.

It capped a memorable season for the Cambridgeshire bowler, who captured the gold medal in the pairs at the Commonwealth Games.

Oxford City & County’s Katherine Hawes, who had beaten Galletly in the Oxfordshire final, had to start at the preliminary round stage, edging past St Neot’s (Cambridgeshire) bowler Sue Alexander 15-14.

However, she met her match in the first round, bowing out 16-12 to Kitty Mulholland (Lancs).

Hawes will be hoping to progress further in the pairs today with partner Donna Grant.

Clubmates Carol Penson and Carol Gaskins are already through to the second round after overcoming Carol Hardman (Bolton BC, Lancs) 26-9.

Banbury Central’s four of skip Ann Noble, Maureen Cox, Gill Hunt and Sue Waring did well to get through to the quarter-finals of the fours before losing 24-10 to Margaret Holden’s four from Hampshire.

They had seen off Tina Webb (Papworth, Hunts) 27-20 and Suz-ann Barnes (Royal Bank of Scotland, Kent) 21-14 in earlier rounds.