Worcestershire Short Mat Bowls Association

The squad for the home fixture against Cheshire on 30th October is shown below :

Worcestershire lost their second ICC match of the season, against Gloucestershire, by 11 points to 29  –  shots scored  Worcestershire 173  –  Goucestershire 251.

Against a strong Gloucestershire squad, and playing on mats much quicker than those usually used by Worcestershire, the county often struggled to find their form. There were, however, some successes  –  Johnathon Smith won both his singles games and Belinda Gibbs and Richard Rose drew their morning pairs game and then went on to win their afternoon game. Pete Forster and Jim Tingle won their morning pairs game. The triples and fours teams lost their games :

This fixture was the county’s first Inter County Competition match of the ESMBA 2022-2023 season, played at Bromsgrove.  The county narrowly lost, scoring 17 points to Gloucestershire’s 23, with the county scoring 173 shots to Gloucestershire’s 178.  From the sixteen individual games played, Worcestershire won six, lost seven and drew three, in what was a very closely fought contest.

Morning Session.

Johnathon Smith was in complete control of his singles game, and by the 13th end was leading by 17 shots to 5. A late surge by his opponent, who scored 6 shots off the last two ends was insufficient to prevent Johnathon winning by 17 shots to 11. Richard Payne in his singles game won nine of the fifteen ends but could not prevent his opposite number narrowly winning the game  –  nine shots for Richard, twelve for his opponent.

In the pairs, Jenny Gibbs and Jim Tingle led throughout their game and following a fairly close fought contest won by 14 shots to 11.  Chris Allen and Richard Rose lost their pairs match by 8 shots to 15.

Terry Clifford’s triples team had a narrow defeat  –  11 shots to 13, but Alan Walters’ team had a comfortable 12-6 win, having won eight of the thirteen ends played.

Malcolm Saunders fours team were only two shots adrift after eight ends, but a late surge by their opponents resulted in the team losing by 7 shots to 14.  In her fours game, June Green’s team drew with their opponents 9-9

Afternoon Session.

Johnathon  lost his singles game 7-19 and Richard  lost 9-12.

In the pairs, Jenny and Jim lost, but Chris and Richard Rose won their hard fought contest, overcoming the opposition with a 13-11 win.

In one of the most convincing wins of the day Terry’s triples team led throughout the game winning nine of the thirteen ends played, and romped home winning 20 shots to 4.  Alan’s triples team also led throughout their game and had a very comfortable  win by 12 shots to 5  –  their second win of the day.

In the fours, Malcolm’s team led in nine of the eleven ends played, but could not prevent their opposition levelling the game at 11-11 in the final end.  June’s fours team also drew their game  –  their second draw of the day, this time with a score of 7-7.

Summary of the day’s play below  :

The Bowls Development Alliance ,which includes the English Short Mat Bowls Association, has been active in safeguarding matters for some time. The county has been asked to publicise their latest newsletter which is set out in the “Safeguarding” page of this web site.

The ESMBA has recently announced the arrangements for 2022 / 2023 and has published their official diary. Our web site now includes this information.

For this new season the competition will revert to the pre covid arrangements with county squads of 20 bowlers playing the traditional home and away matches. There will be two singles, two pairs, two triples, and two fours – there will be no pre match roll ups and matches will commence at 1030.

One major change for the forthcoming season will be the establishment of three divisions  –  “Premier  1, ( 8 counties ) ,  Premier  2, ( 16 counties )  and A teams  ( 10 counties ).  There will be one relegation / promotion between the two premier divisions

Worcestershire will be in the Premier 2 division and will be facing three other counties in our group  –  Cheshire, Gloucestershire, and Herefordshire.