Worcestershire Short Mat Bowls Association

The County’s first match of the season was away against Gloucestershire “A”. This was a friendly fixture played outside the usual inter county fixtures. A return match is scheduled for 19th December. At the conclusion of the match it was agreed that the home and away fixture arrangement should become a permanent feature in the diary. Our County President and Captain, Richard Payne, offered to provide a cup to be awarded annually to the overall winning team of the two fixtures.

This first match was a hard fought affair against a typically strong Gloucestershire team but  with the overall result and shot score not really reflecting the County’s performance. In the end Gloucestershire won by 28 points to 12.

In the morning session the County got off to a disappointing start. The Singles and and Pairs lost their matches although Richard Payne in the Singles and Richard Rose and Trish Clifford in the pairs were only four shots adrift after  very tough matches.

The Singles and Pairs get under way during the morning session

The Triples and Fours teams fared much better with wins for Anthony Ruddy’s Triples team ( 12 shots to 9 ), Mark Bourne’s Triples team ( 20 shots to 2 ), and Steve Tyler’s fours team by 10 shots to 8.

In the afternoon session the singles and pairs teams lost their matches, but in the case of Richard Rose and Trish Clifford ( Pairs ), they only missed out by one shot. In the Triples, Malcolm Saunders’ team had a comfortable 18 shots to 5 win with Terry Clifford’s Fours team winning by 13 shots to 9. Mark Bourne’s triples team had a narrow defeat by one shot.

There will be a pre season practise session at Bromsgrove Indoor Bowls Centre on 19th September from 9.00am to 2.00pm. All of the county squad is requested to attend.

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.