The Dapto Citizens-based Suckley beat former district singles champion Christine Speer (Wiseman Park) by 25-10 in last Thursday's final.

Suckley skipped a Dapto Citizens team to victory in the district open fours earlier this year and won six matches to join an elite group as a multiple Illawarra District Singles champion. Speer was also bidding for her second district crown for 2020 after winning the open pairs with Wiseman Park clubmate Robin Humphries and started the singles final well, leading 7-2 on four ends. But Suckley found her touch and won the next 11 ends to take an unbeatable 24-7 lead.

Suckley represented Illawarra in singles at the 2019 State Championships and began her campaign for back-to-back titles with a 25-16 victory over Denise Ryan, followed by a 25-12 win over Annette Nicholls in round two. Suckley beat Julie Cotton 25-7 in the next round and posted a 13-shot win over Lorraine Alaban in the quarter finals.

The Dapto Citizens bowler beat Warilla's Pam Willets 25-17 in their morning semi-final to qualify for the afternoon final at Bellambi Bowling Club.

Meanwhile, Speer had a hard-fought 25-21 win over Bellambi's Brenda Cairney in their semi, after beating clubmates Robin Humphries 25-12 and Julea Morgan 25-14, plus Christine Winders 25-9 to reach the last four.

Among the best matches from the early rounds was Julie Breasley edging out Dianne Tully 25-24 in round one, while Julie Cotton survived a thriller in round two beating Amy Grant 25-23, and Fiona Wong also had a 25-23 win over Kerrie Taylor.

Forty-five bowlers representing most clubs in Illawarra district competed in the blue-ribbon singles event for 2020. All clubs and bowlers adhered to strict COVID-19 protocols and the district was proud of the manner in which the games were conducted in the most difficult of years for bowls.

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The Illawarra District Championships for 2020 continue with the district triples from August 25 with the semi-final and final on August 27 at Fairy Meadow BC. The Warilla combination of Shirley Berry, Pam Willets and Patricia Orgill won the 2019 district triples.

The 2020 NSW Women's State Championships were due to be played in October at South Tamworth Bowling Club, but they have been postponed until February 2021. Illawarra will be looking for a strong performance following a comparatively lean run in 2019 against many of the state's best bowlers.

Raymond Terrace's rising star Genevieve Delves was the outstanding bowler at last year's State Championships, winning the singles, open pairs and triples titles.

The Zone 16 Singles championships have again been postponed following the latest NSW government guidelines on community sport, as bowlers face more COVID-19 uncertainty.

Zone 16 was scheduled to feature four excellent quarter finals in the open singles and president's reserve singles and begin its seniors singles on Saturday, but all three events are postponed for at least six weeks.

Renewed fears over a spread of COVID-19 resulted in the latest major changes to community sport participation, including lawn bowls, from August 19. At this stage, club bowls can continue providing participants are from the same local area.

The NSW Health directive means the upcoming knockout pennants plus the open singles quarter finals featuring Brendan Aquilina versus Corey Wedlock; Aaron Teys versus Gary Kelly; Daniel Nanasi versus Pete Bonsor and Corey Thompson versus Jayden Gebbie are postponed until at least September 30. Reserve singles quarter finals featuring Chris Rae versus Greg Wray; Luke Tolhurst versus Philip Jones; Dale Chin versus Steve Dobell, and Noel Stopher versus Dave Gould are also off.

While the news is another setback for bowls it is not a shutdown of local bowls and there is still time to finish the zone singles if guidelines are lifted before the end of 2020.

The Illawarra Women's District rep season is impacted by new community sport directives, with three events in the next week called off.

District open pairs champions Christine Speer and Robin Humphries (Wiseman Park), along with 2020 Senior Pairs winners Carol Owen and Julea Morgan, also from Wiseman Park, were due to play Goulburn in the regional playoffs on Friday at Bowral. The winners advance to the State Championships.

But increasing COVID concerns have forced all NSW women's representative and district bowls to be suspended for at least six weeks, while the State Championships have been rescheduled from October to next February. Latest NSW government guidelines also mean the district triples, scheduled from August 25-27, are postponed.

A decision on the future of rep and district events will be made as soon as more details are available. Women's Bowls NSW have also confirmed their State Championships in October at South Tamworth have been postponed until February 2021.