Worcestershire Short Mat Bowls Association

The county visited Shropshire for this last inter county match of the season with a win necessary to qualify for the national inter county knockout competition starting at the end of January next year. The county won by 24 points to 16, scoring 199 shots to Shropshire’s 184. As a result Worcestershire go forward to next year’s knockout competition.

The first session  –  Singles –  Jim had a close match until the last few ends but Steve was outclassed. In the Pairs Anthony and Johnathon just lost out with Trish and Richard battling a tight see-saw game to 8 – 8, when they came to terms with the mat to pull away and when convincingly 18 – 8.

The Triple of Phil, Richard and Mark, swept the opposition away to win 17 – 11, while Sue, Sandra and Richard were unlucky to lose on the last end. The Fours of Anne, Tony, Richard and Keith piled on the pressure to win by 10 shots to 6, as did Jenny, Ann, Avis and Terry.

Half time  –  all even

The county started the afternoon session with confidence. Both Singles, however,  lost,  but both Pairs won. Johnathon and Anthony smashed their way to a 22 – 4 victory ( highest score of the season ).The Triples of Phil, Richard and Mark also won easily, but unfortunately Sue, Sandra and Richard faded over the last few ends to a loss. The Fours also were in fine fettle winning easily.

This was the county’s best result this season

The table summarising the results is shown below :

The County was narrowly beaten by the England Under 21’s squad, with the County scoring 29  points to 35 points by the England young enthusiasts. The County shot total was 262 against 278 for the England squad.

This fixture had a different format from the usual ESMBA inter county matches. Each squad consisted of 24 bowlers and the competition included a mixture of Fours/Triples and Pairs with a total of 32 matches being played over five sessions during the day. The County squad was  – R. Payne, R. Rose, K. Mills, T. Clifford, D. Grove, J. Smith, B. Mol, M. Saunders, A. Rose, J. Ellesmore, T. Crowley, J. Gibbs, A. Hough, A. Walters, J. Smith, C. Arnold, S. Tyler, J. Tingle, Trish Clifford, R. Hulbert, R. Danks, A. Kilgour, S. Felton, M. Bourne, and last but not least  Phil and Leah Thompson who are in the County squad and  also part of the England Under 21 ‘s squad.

From the 32 matches played the County won 14 and drew 1, with the England squad winning 17 and also drawing 1

Session 1.

This session saw 6 County Fours teams competing over 8 ends with the County winning 2 of them. Malcolm Saunders’ team ( including Dave Grove, Joel Smith and Ben Mol ) had a 9-6 victory with Keith Mills’ team ( including Trish Clifford, Richard Hulbert and Richard Danks ) winning by 9 shots to 5. Both Terry Clifford’s team and Richard Payne’s team lost by only 1 shot.

Session 2.

Eight Triples teams competed in this session over nine ends. There were three County wins with one drawn match.Malcolm Saunders’ team ( including Steve Tyler and Sandra Felton ) had a convincing win by 10 shots to 5 as did Richard Hulbert’s team ( including Carole and Julien Ellsmore ), winning by 10 shots to 6. Ben Mol’s team ( including Joel Smith and Tony Crowley had an impressive win by 11 shots to 4. Richard Rose’s team ( including Johnathon Smith and Trish Clifford)  drew 8-8.

Session 3.

First of two Pairs sessions with six teams competing over 9 ends. There were wins by Trish and Terry Clifford  –  7 shots to 3, and by Richard Payne and Richard Hulbert  –  8 shots to 7.

Pairs in action

Pairs in action

Session 4.

The county won four of the six matches in the second of the two pairs competitions. Malcolm Saunders and Sandra Felton won their match by 10 shots to 6 . Jim Tingle and Dave Grove had a very impressive 12 shots to 1 win with Richard Danks and Carole Arnold having another impressive win by 15 shots to 3. Yet another impressive win was achieved by Tony Crowley and Johnathon Smith by 13 shots to 3.

Session 5.

This session was a repeat of the first session with 6 Fours teams competing , this time over 11 ends. The County won three of these matches with Richard Rose’s team winning by 14 shots to 10. Jim Tingle’s team won by 12 shots to 7 and Richard Payne’s team won by 17 shots to 16. Two of the County’s losing teams lost by only 1 shot with the other losing team by 2 shots.

At the end of a long day with some excellent bowling performances the two squads had a traditional line up.

County and England Under 21’s line up 29th November 2015