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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.

July 2015  —  There are now three new coaches for all forms of bowling  within the county.

Terry and Trish Clifford and John Beckley, registered short mat bowlers with the county, and members of the Churchill and Blakedown Short Mat Bowls Club,  have recently passed the requirements of the Bowls Development Alliance to become Level 1 Qualified coaches for all forms of bowls. Terry and Trish are also currently part of the county squad.

This tournament consists of teams of between 6 and 10 bowlers ( ” Dick’s Devils ” had a team of 6 ), with individual matches consisting of singles/pairs/triples/fours. The finals take place in Torquay

Qualification for this event takes place  during the preceding year with ” Dick’s Devils ” qualifying in July last year.

On the 18th, in the round robin series of matches, ” Dick’s Devils” under the banner of Gilt Edge had a slightly disappointing start to the tournament  scoring 10 points against the opponents 14 . Over the three matches played the Gilt Edge squad scored 87 shots against the opponents 99.  On the 19th in the quarter finals for the “Plate” trophy, Gilt Edge had a comfortable win over Hazelbury Bryan winning the singles, triples and fours matches achieving an overall 7 shot advantage. In the semi finals against Middlezoy of Somerset, Gilt Edge won the singles and pairs matches but lost overall by one shot. No luck this year but almost to the final.

Bowlers from the county competed in the national finals held at Church Gresley in Derbyshire. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed this annual event competing against the best in the country. Unfortunately no honours were achieved.

A snapshot of two of the events is shown below. In the pairs competition held on the 10th Richard Rose and Dave Grove opened well winning their first game in the round robin series by 10 shots to 7. They lost their following two games by 5 shots to 10 and 7 shots to 9. They did not, therefore, advance to the knockout stage of the competition.

Richard Rose and Dave Grove in action at the National Finals ( Pairs )

In the triples event on the 12th, the county’s  team of Yvonne Payne, Richard Payne and Ian Davis progressed into the knockout stage of the competition, but unfortunately missed out from achieving further progression by a last end victory by their opponents. The second county team of  Richard Rose, Malcolm Saunders, and Terry Clifford started their round robin series of matches with a heavy defeat. Their next two games, however, could not have been different with wins of 10 shots to 3 and 9 shots to 7, the latter game against a strong West Midlands team. The Worcester team were equal on points with two others in the round robin group but could not progress to the knockout stage because of a poorer shot difference.

Richard Rose, Malcolm Saunders, and Terry Clifford in action at the National Finals ( Triples )

The County played in a short mat bowling exhibition match at the venue of the Our Lady of Lourdes Bowling Club in Kingswinford.  The short mats used were somewhat different from the ESMBA short mats, being longer, wider, and missing the central wooden block. Two mats were used for this match with 10 bowlers from each squad taking part. The match consisted of two singles/pairs/triples/fours, resulting in eight separate independent matches.

The county  squad was in fine form winning 6 of the 8 matches. The county scored 89 shots with the Our lady of Lourdes scoring 35. One particular end of note during the evening ( although perhaps there were quite a number ), occurred in one of the two the pairs matches ( Richard Rose and Keith Mills ), when Keith produced a very consistent delivery. Keith’s green bowls are shown in the photograph below neatly clustered around the jack.

A cup to commemorate the match was given by Dave Powell to the winning captain of the Worcester county Squad – Richard Payne.