The heat was certainly on at the 54th Southend Ladies Open Bowls Tournament as the singles and mixed pairs and battled it out yesterday.

On what was probably the hottest day of the competition so far, the finalists of the singles were decided.

Sheila Hennessey of Wickford RBL raced a head to a good lead in her semi-final, which she was able to maintain to comprehensively defeat Victoria's Margaret Truman 21-4.

Maureen Goodman of Greenways also got off to a fine start in her semi with Jean Bowtle of Rochford.

Despite a spirited comeback from Jean, Maureen booked her place in the final with a 21-13 victory.

A total of 128 pairs of bowlers started out in the mixed competition, but yesterday saw them whittled down to the final eight who contested the quarter-finals today.

Competition was very tight and several games went right down to the wire.

Former county president Margaret Benz and Malcolm Benz from Hainault secured a quarters spot by beating Fairway's Shirley Cohen and her husband Harry (Belfairs) 21-18.

Connie Lunn and Ken Watkins of Shoebury beat fellow club bowlers J Southwood and her partner 23-12.

Past singles winner Evelyn Schooling from Victoria and partner John Warman (Essex County) booked a game with Jan and John Adams of Shoebury after both pairs carded quite easy wins.

Essex County's Paul Maynard and his mother-in-law Marg Skilbeck (Murrayfield) got through thanks to Paul taking the jack on the last end to secure four to win 21-20.

His vital shot beat Alf and Joan Wallis of Hockley and means Paul and Marg played Roy and Barbara Smith of South Benfleet today.

Daphne and John French of Hockley secured a one-shot win to beat Maureen and Bert Newman, of Rayleigh and Carreras respectively, in a close-fought game. Daphne and John played Pauline and John James of Romford today.

The finalists will get a day off tomorrow before the finals start at Priory Park at 2.30pm on Sunday.

On target - the singles, pairs and mixed pairs finals of the ladies open bowls tournament get under on Sunday

Picture: STEVE O'CONNELL

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.