County Pairs
Sunday the 15th of December saw 19 pairs meet at Stevenage to compete in our County and National Qualifiers Pairs competition. The pairs were split into three groups of five and one group of four. Play commenced at 09.30, with all eight mats in use during the morning round robin stage. At the end of the round robin we had our eight quarter finalists. These were the top two from each of the four groups. Whilst we all had lunch our Competition Secretary double-checked his calculations before announcing the line up for the quarter finals. The quarter finals were played on the back mats saving our front four competition mats for the Semifinals and Finals.
Mat Five had the pair of Trevor Knight and Michelle Conlon playing Alan Spicer and Brian McGivern, after nine of the ten ends Alan’s pairing were 9 – 4 in front and Trevor and Michellle conceded.
Mat Six and the pairing of Andrew Miles and Alan Hare played Darren Stanford and Jeanette Gayler, again this game was over in nine ends with Andrew and Alan winning 9 – 4.
Mat Seven had the pair of Barry and Val Thorogood playing Darren Brown and Mark Spalding. Darren and Mark pulled in front and won with a score of 11 – 2 after eight ends.
Our last Quarter final was played on mat Eight. This mat had the pairing of Neil Rixon and Martin Nash playing Bev Stevenson and Jeff Branch. Bev and Jeff pulled in front and won 12 – 7 after nine ends.
So we were now all set up for the Semi Finals. Semi-final one was played on mat one. We had the pairing of Alan and Brian playing Darren and Mark. In a close game Darren and Mark took the win at 6 – 7. Semifinal 2 had Alan and Andrew playing Bev and Jeff on mat 4. In another close game the final end saw our second finalists, Bev and Jeff win with the last bowl with another close score of 11 - 10.
The Third/Fourth place match between Alan H and Andrew, and Alan S and Brian, was played on mat two. Alan S and Brian took third place winning 9 - 4 after nine ends.
The culmination of the day saw the final between Darren and Mark and Bev and Jeff take place on mat three. Darren and Mark had the upper hand and took the title this year with a score of 10 – 3.
Our finalists will be guaranteed a place at the National finals but we would expect to be awarded either three or four places so all four of our Semifinalists could be playing at Melton Mowbray in the nationals next March.
Our next County/National Qualifier competition will be next weekend, December the 22nd when we will all be at Stevenage again playing the mixed fours. See you all there for another round of our exciting Countywide competitions.