Bourn wins champion of champions

THE Mount Gambier District Indoor Bowls Association held its final association championships for the 2026 season before the remaining minor round games and finals.

The championships being the Intersport/Colleen Pearson Memorial Ladies singles with 12 entries and the Pearson Family/Athol and Sue Malseed Men’s singles with 25 entries, which also incorporated the Ian Simpson Memorial Champion of Champions.

In the Intersport/Colleen Pearson Memorial Ladies singles, semi final saw Glenburnie player Serena Bourn take victory from her Glenburnie team mate Nicola Bowditch 9 shots to 5.

The other semi final saw Emma Freemantle from Blue Lake Bowlers beat the Post-Tel player Fiona Pearson 7 shots to 3.

This set up a final between Serena Bourn and Emma Freemantle.

The game started with Serena wining the first two ends and Emma scoring one shot on the third end making the difference two shots.

But on the next end Serena scored a three and then one shot on the sixth end to give her victory and win the 2026 Intersport/Colleen Pearson memorial Ladies singles championship 7 shots to 3.

In the Pearson Family/Athol and Sue Malseed Men’s singles saw the first semi final go to Blue Lake Bowler Greg Carter over his Blue Lake Bowler team mate Blayne Price 7 shots to 5.

In the second semi final Commercial Club player Coehen Keppels beat Craig Reynolds from Blue Lake Bowlers 8 shots to 6.

The men’s final between Greg and Coehen was lined up to be a very interesting game, with this being Greg’s second year of playing and Coehen with many years under his belt.

But the consistency of Greg’s draw game shone through and commanding the game to win every end and take victory with out playing the last end 9 shots to 0 in the 2026 Pearson Family/Athol and Sue Malseed Men’s Singles championship.

This saw Serena and Greg meet in the Ian Simpson Memorial Champion of Champions something that both wanted to win with Serena going for her second back to back and Greg for his first

The Champion of Champions game was expected to be close but the result was very different with Serena winning the first four ends giving her a eight shot lead and Greg only managed to score three shots on the next two ends which wasn’t enough, giving Serena the Ian Simpson Memorial Champion of Champions for her second time.

Serena won the silverware 10 shots to 3.

The Ladies consolation semi finals Jennifer Bowering (Saints) defeated Caroline Walters (Moorak) 8 shots to 3 and Fiona Rochow (Glenburnie) defeat Heather Glynn (Kongorong) 7 shots to 3.

The Ladies consolation final was won by Jennifer Bowering defeating Fiona Rochow 5 shots to 3.

The Men’s consolation semi finals Thomas Butler (Blue Lake Bowlers) defeated Oliver Devlin (Kongorong) 10 shots to 3 and Glen McCallum (Blue Lake Bowlers) defeated Vince Mancuso (Kongorong) 6 shots to 5.

The Men’s consolation final was won by Thomas Butler defeating Glen McCallum 8 shots to 2.

The Mount Gambier District Indoor Bowls Association also held a Junior Singles championship, proudly sponsored by Marie Pedlar, on the same night with two players competing – Oliver Devlin from Kongorong and Casey Bourn from Glenburnie.

The two played a game under the AIBBC ruling with the winner of the 2026 Junior Singles Championship being Oliver Devlin and the runner up being Casey Bourn.