Worcestershire Short Mat Bowls Association

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.

The Short Mat Players Tour for the 2014/2015 season continued with the staging of the “English Masters” tournament at the Bromsgrove Indoor Bowls Centre. This was an international singles tournament,open to all short mat bowlers, with a total of  144  competing from across Europe.Three Worcester County players took part and thoroughly enjoyed a weekend of quality bowling against the best in Europe. Further tournaments staged by the Short Mat Players Tour are programmed for later this year at Bromsgrove Indoor Bowls Centre. As this centre is the home venue for Worcestershire Short Mat Bowls Association, there is a unique opportunity for short mat bowlers within Worcestershire to participate. County players and non county players are urged to consider participating in these tournaments. The tournments are extemely well organised with the next one taking place on 22nd/23rd August. This will be a singles tournament with pairs and fours tournaments following in December. Entries for the August tournament open on 1st March 2015.

Looking back on the English Masters event, Stephen Williams ( Wales ) won, with the runner up being Paul Bax ( England )