Sunday the 22^nd of December was the last county bowls event before Christmas. Nine teams of mixed fours arrived at Stevenage at nine in the morning for this round of County/National competitions.  The teams were split into one group of five and one group of four.  Play began at 9.30 with teams playing either four or three eight end group stage matches. With these games taking over an hour each it was going to be a long day. At the end of the group stages our County Competition Secretary sat down to sort out the top two in each group. This task took a bit longer than expected.  The ‘B’ group was quite straight forward with Brian Fowler’s team and Brian McGivern’s team going through. Group ‘A’ was a bit trickier. Darren Brown’s team had top spot but two teams had the same number of points, double checking the figures it became apparent that they both had the same shot difference as well so Darren Stanford then had to count back and check how many ends each team had won. After a few minutes it was resolved, by the very close margin of 15 ends to 14 ends Alan Hare’s team had just squeezed in to that last semi-final spot with Jeanette Gayler’s team missing out by that one end.

With the clock ticking round our Semi-finals started at 15.30. On mat one we had Alan Spicer, Beverly Stevenson, Julia Bruce and Brian McGivern playing Angie Baird, Wendy Hunt, Mark Spalding and Darren Brown.  In a hard fought game Brian McGivern’s team had taken the win after eight ends at 8 – 6. On mat four we had Lisa Miles, Andrew Miles, Margaret Hare and Alan Hare playing Audrey Fowler, Sue Knight, Malcolm Warwick and Brian Fowler. After the eight ends had been played Brian Fowler’s team had the win at 11 – 5.

We were now set up for our Final and 3^rd/4^th place matches.

Mat two had Darren Brown’s team playing Alan Hare’s team to settle the 3^rd/4^th place positions. In a close game our eventual winners taking third place with a score of 10 – 7 were Angie Baird, Wendy Hunt, Mark Spalding and Darren Brown.

Mat three had the culmination of the day, our Final between the two Brians. At the end of the eight ends our Mixed fours winners were the team of Alan Spicer, Beverly Stevenson, Julia Bruce and Brian McGivern with a score of 9 - 2. The only team to beat everybody that they played and take that top spot. Congratulations to the four of them.

With the top two guaranteed to get places at the nationals and with third and fourth in with a good chance we all went home to book our hotels at Melton Mowbray in April.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all our readers. Don’t forget our County competitions start again in January. Sunday the 05^th sees the ICC squad take on West Midlands at home in the last match of the round robin stage. This will be at Stevenage where a substantial win could give us top spot in our group. Then its back to our County/National Qualifiers with the fours on Sunday the 12^th January. See you all in the new year.