Worcestershire Short Mat Bowls Association

This home fixture was the first leg of the “Two Shires” competition held annually with Gloucestershire. This competition was first held in 2015 with Gloucestershire winning the first four matches and ,therefore, holding the trophy which was donated by the Worcestershire County captain.

With four wins behind them Gloucestershire might have been confident of increasing this total. Worcestershire, however, performed magnificently winning this match by 29 shots to 11 . The county won 11 of the 16 matches played, and in two of those lost, the shot difference was only one. The county scored 222 shots compared with 152 by Gloucestershire.

It is likely that the second leg of the competition will be played at Churchdown in March.

Session  1.

This was the least successful session for the county with only one win out of the four matches played. Johnathon Smith, having taken the lead in the 8th end, maintained that lead and went on to win 15-12. Jim Tingle had a narrow defeat 9-13. Both pairs teams lost with Richard Rose /Leah Thompson only losing by one shot.

Session  2.

This session consisted of 4 “fours” teams. The county won three of the four matches played in the session. Richard Payne’s team led throughout their match, losing only three ends, eventually winning 15-5. Keith Mills team led from the third end winning the match 13-6 and Alan Walters’ team won 11-8. Terry Clifford’s team lost by only one shot in the last end of their match.

At the half way stage the two counties were level on points

Session  3.

Another good session for the county winning three of the matches played. Johnathon Smith went on to win his second match of the day, leading from the 6th end, scoring 7 shots off the last two ends, finally winning by 21  shots to 7  –  an impressive shot difference of 14. Both pairs teams won. Pete Forster/Richard Payne won 12-9 and Richard Rose/Leah Thompson took the lead in the 4th end and powered their way to a 20 shots to 8 win, another impressive shot difference win – this time 12 shots.

Session  4.

All the fours teams won with some very impressive performances. Terry Clifford’s team took the lead in the second end and went on to be comfortable winners 15 shots to 7. Keith Mills team had another  13-6 win, having led throughout the match. Richard Payne’s team led after the 5th end to win 17-4, another impressive shot difference win. Alan Walters’ team led throughout their match, winning nine of the eleven ends played, going on to win by 17 shots to 3 – yet again another impressive shot difference win (14), equalling Johnathon’s in session three.

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All the county squad should feel pleased with a successful and inclusive  performance which made the squad worthy winners of this first leg of the “Two Shires ” competition. The county’s thanks also go to Gloucestershire for agreeing to play this match at short notice, and also for the friendly  and good natured atmosphere that prevailed throughout the day.

A summary of all the scores and results is shown below :

This away match saw the county heavily defeated by West Midlands with the county scoring 8 points and West Midlands 32  –  the county scored 149 shots with West Midlands scoring 231  –  this was after a first session win for the county by 6 points to 2.

The match was marred by unacceptable behaviour by the West Midlands players who were involved in loud shouting, sledging and making inappropriate comments. There is little doubt that this affected Worcestershire county players and probably impacted upon overall performance. It was not only Worcestershire’s players who were affected. West Midlands Premier team were playing Northamptonshire at the same venue and the Northamptonshire players were also subjected to unacceptable behaviour. Because of this the Worcestershire and Northamptonshire County Captains will be lodging a formal complaint to the English Short Mat Bowling Association.

Readers of the following report on the county’s performance/results etc.during this match should have due regard to the conditions the county players were subjected to.

The first session was dominated by Worcestershire winning three of the four matches played. Jim Tingle in his singles match led throughout, achieving a narrow 14-11 victory. Johnathon Smith was trailing for much of his singles match, including going into the last end, but achieved a magnificent 3 shots off this last end to win his match 14-13. In the pairs, Pete Forster and Cayman Dredge took 7 shots off the last four ends to win 17-14. At the end of the first session the county were leading 6 points to 2.

The rest of the day’s bowling was disappointing with only one win in the remaining three sessions ( 12 matches ). In the final session of the day Terry Clifford’s fours team were losing 0-7 after four ends but then went on to win six of the remaining seven ends to achieve a well earned victory by 9 shots to 8.

A summary of all the results is shown below  :