The ESMBA has staged the first qualifying event for the TLH National Club Finals – the finals will be held in Torquay in April 2016. The qualifying event was held at Daventry Indoor Bowls centre on the 12th July.There was one club entry from Worcestershire – Richard’s Rebels – consisting of registered short mat bowlers mainly from Churchill and Blakedown short mat bowls club together with it’s supporting bowlers.
The team consisted of Alan Walters, Terry Clifford, Ian Davis, Sandra Felton, Malcolm Saunders, Dave Grove, Trish Clifford and Richard Rose.
The competition consisted of 4 groups with 3 clubs in each group. The Worcestershire club had their most successful performance of any Worcestershire team entering into this competition. Competing against Burtonwood from Cheshire Richard’s Rebels won the singles/pairs/triples/and fours very convincingly with an overall score total of 41 shots to the oponents 14. This was teamwork at it’s best. The match against Holmans from Cornwall was much harder. Both the singles and pairs matches resuted in defeats for Richard’s Rebels but the triples and fours teams won, resulting in 6 wins out of 8 from the two matches and an overall score of 65 shots against 45 for the two opponents. The effect of this placed Richard’s Rebels at the head of the group and as a result easily qualifying for the finals in Torquay.
The group winners then played a semi final with Richard’s Rebels pitched against a strong Gloster Knights team.Unfortunately Richard’s Rebels could not maintain the momemtum of earlier in the day and lost their singles/pairs/triples/matches.
The team,however, left Daventry in high spirits having performed very well together and were well pleased to have qualified for the finals in Torquay, being at the top of their qualifying group.
