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Search forNikki ends on a low note
Thursday, August 07, 2008, 23:00
The under-31 team were reigning inter-county champions but suffered a shock 37-35 defeat by Bedfordshire in the quarter-finals this week..
"Nikki will be sorely missed being the steady force at skip and captaining the side to victory last year," said Devon County Ladies Bowls Association secretary Carol Horgan.
The Amy Rose squad could be strengthened further next season with Surrey star Amanda Higginbotham, girlfriend of Kings' Sam Tolchard, believed to be coming to Devon to live.
An England junior international, Amanda won the England under-25 pairs title last summer.
Horgan added: "We had a good start to beat Hertfordshire 61-31 and Oxfordshire 60-20 but the wheels definitely came off against Bedfordshire.
"Nikki Payne's rink won again but Natalie Melmore's rink did not just seem to get together and lost.
"It's such a shame for the girls, especially for Nikki Payne as this is the last year she is able to play in the competition."
Exonia's England under-25 international Sian Gordon, and Kings' Sophie Tolchard — who will soon make her first England appearance in the under-18 test series in Carlisle — both reached the quarter-finals of the Amy Rose singles.
Sophie Tolchard was beaten by eventual runner-up Stephanie Branfield (Somerset) 2-1 after the extra-end, while Gordon lost out to Derbyshire's Annie Shepperson.
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