Worcestershire Short Mat Bowls Association

This home fixture against West Midlands was the first match in the ESMBA iner county competition for 2018-2019. West Midlands won by 23 points to 17 with shots scored  –  Worcestershire 177 and West Midlands 188. This was a very close hard fought contest with Worcs. scoring 48.5% of the total shots with West Midlands scoring 51.5%.

Session  1.   There were two wins and two losses in this session with Jim Tingle winning his singles match comfortably 13-8. Dave Grove and Leah Arthurs-Thompson won their pairs match 17-10 helped by scoring the full complement of four shots off ends four and eight.

Session  2.   One win and one draw in this session. In the triples Cayman Dredge’s team were 8-4 up after end 9   –  8-5 up after end 10   –  8-6 up after end 11  and  8-7 up after end 12. The score seemed to be going in the wrong direction so the team decided that things should change in the final end which they won with a “Hot Shot” score of six to win the match 14-7. In the fours,  Alan Walters’ team were behind for ten of the eleven ends, going into the last end 7-9 down. they kept their nerve, took two shots off this last end to earn a well deserved draw.

Session  3.   Johnathon Smith in his singles match had a very strong finish winning the last five ends ( with a total of 8 shots ), to win the match 17-8. In the pairs Dave Grove and Leah Arthurs-Thompson, in a hard and closely fought match, went into the last end level on 9 shots, They won this last end by one shot to earn a well deserved 10-9 victory.

Sessin  4.   Both triples teams lost their matches but what a finale to the day’s competition by both fours teams. Alan Walters team lost the first two ends but won the remaining nine ends. This was a high scoring match for the county with end number 4 producing a 6 shot win, supported by consistent scoring throughout. The final result 20-4 was a fantastic win. Terry Clifford’s team went even further with a shot difference of +19 for the match. They won the first nine ends comfortably including    –   3 shots off end 1  –  5 shots off end 7  –  3 shots off end 8   and 3 shots off end 9. The opposition managed 2 shots off the last two ends with Terry’s team winning 21-2.

A summary of all of the results is shown below :

This home fixture against Gloucestershire was the first leg of the 2018/2019 Two Shires Competition. Gloucestershire won by 26 points to 14, having won ten of the individual matches and gaining six of the eight available bonus points. Worcestershire scored 179 shots compared with 211 by Gloucestershire.

Session  1.   Both Jim Tingle and Johnathon Smith won their opening singles matches  –  both with a two shot advantage. Jim shot into the lead and was 11-1 up after the 5th end. His opponent fought back strongly and scores were level at 14-14 going into the final end of he match. Jim kept his nerve and won this last end by two shots. Johnathon Smith was level with his opponent  11-11 after the 12th end and with a total of four shots off the 13th and 15th ends ( compared with two shots off the 14th end by his opponent ) Johnathon won 15-13. Both pairs teams lost their matches

Session  2 .   In the triples, Trish Clifford/Sandra Felton/Cayman Dredge were marginally ahead for most of their hard fought match. Scores, however, were level going into the last end, but the Worcs. team kept their nerve and won the end by two shots to win the match 13-11. Keith Mills triples team lost their match. Alan Walters’ fours team were either behind or level with their opponents for the first 8 ends  ( 7-8 down after the 8th end ). Winning the 9th end by 3 shots and the 10th end by a massive 6 shots, the team rocketed to a 16-9 win. Terry Clifford’s fours team narrowly lost their match 10-12.

Session  3.  Except for the first end Johnathon Smith was ahead of his opponent for the whole of his singles match. With a very strong and consistent performance Johnathon comfortably won by 17 shots to 8. Jim Tingle lost his singles match. In the pairs Pete Forster and Malcolm Saunders had a hard fought match with their opponents. They won 9 of the 15 ends in the match but with strong opposition scores were level 11-11 after the 13th end. Both Pete and Malcolm held their nerve and with a strong performance by both of them they took two shots off each of the final two ends to win 15-11. Dave Grove and Leah Arthurs-Thompson lost their pairs match by the narrowest of margins  11-12.

Session  4.    A disappointing session for the home team with both Triples and both Fours losing their matches.

A summary of the results is shown below  :