ESMBA National Finals 2020

The first National Finals event  –  the Mixed Fours  –  took place at Solihull on the 7th march. Three teams from the county competed  –  ( 1 )  Belinda Gibbs / Dave Grove / Maureen Tingle / Jim Tingle.   ( 2 ) Yvonne Payne / Richard Rose / Sandra Felton / Richard Payne.   ( 3 )  Jenny Gibbs / Trish Clifford / Alan Walters / Terry Clifford.

Belinda/Dave/Maureen/ Jim  had tough opposition  in the round robin series of matches and lost, –  5-7  against an East Sussex team, 5-11 against Norfolk, and 2-7 against Devon.  They did not proceed to the knockout stages.

The two other teams did exceptionally well in the group stages, finishing top of their respective groups. Yvonne/Richard/Sandra/Richard narrowly lost to a team from Dorset 7-8, but won 8-0 against Northants and 10-3 against Hertfordshire.  In the first of the knockout rounds they lost 3-9 to a team from Essex.

Jenny/Trish/Alan/Terry won all three of their group games  –  14-6 against Surrey,  9-5 against North Yorkshire, and 7-4 against Cambridgeshire. In the first of the knockout rounds they lost 3-12 to a team from Avon.

The second National Finals event   –   the Over 55’s Pairs   –   took place on the 8th March, also at Solihull. Two teams from the county competed   –    Trish and Terry Clifford  –  and  –  Richard Rose and Richard Payne.

In the group series of matches, Trish and Terry lost 6-13 to a team from Norfolk, lost 6-8 to a team from Essex, but had a crushing 18-3 win over the team from Wiltshire. Unfortunately they did not make the knockout stages.

The two Richards had narrow defeats of 7-8 against a team from Buckinghamshire, and also Kent, but had a convincing win against a team from East Sussex by 12 shots to 7. Because of a superior shot difference they qualified for the knockout stages but in the first round of the knockouts were defeated by a team from North Yorkshire  4-14.

Because of the impact of the coronavirus epidemic, the remaining National Finals competitions have been re – scheduled for the beginning of September.