First match of the afternoon here from Potters Resort was the Ladies World Matchplay Singles final between defending champion, Julie Forrest from Scotland and Lancashire’s Janice Gower in her first final at the World Indoor Championships. Forrest has also been here before and as defending champion was ecstatic at reaching the final.
It was Forrest that started well with superb opening bowls against Gower and she took the first two ends to go 4,0 up. Gower responded managing to take a well earned single in the third end. Forrest was superb in taking the next two ends with two singles before Gower played a good shot to take a single on end six. End seven and again Forrest had a good single but it was Gower that found some good bowls on end eight to take a double to close the deficit to 7-4. It was Forrest with a single in end nine but again Gower fought through to take a double on end ten to be only two behind Forrest. On the final end Gower held two to force a set tie but Forrest played a great bowl with her last to only allow a count of a single shot. First set to Forrest with a scoreline of 8,7.
Second set it was as if Forrest had raised a gear and she powered through the first three ends to take a massive eight shots away from Gower who was clearly suddenly struggling to find a line and weight. Gower managed a double in end four and held Forrest to only a single in end five but it was Forrest that was piling on the pressure with really good opening bowls each end. Gower did try a couple of running bowls but was slightly wide of the head and no contact so another single was lost on the fifth end. Now Gower was seven shots adrift and Forrest just kept piling on the pressure with superb bowls and no matter what Gower did it just was not good enough to outperform Forrest. With another four and a double against her Gower fought to get at least a double on end eight but it was not to be, Gower laying two Forrest promptly outdrew it to cut it down to a single and the great performance of Forrest takes her through as the 2020 Ladies World Matchplay Champion