The weekend of 08/09th March saw the finals of the first two national competitions being held at their new home of the Indoor Bowls Club in Melton Mowbray. Hertfordshire were well represented, they had the full quota of four teams entered in each competition. Saturday’s competition was the mixed fours with the over 55’s pairs being played on the Sunday. For those of you unfamiliar with the format, teams were placed in groups of four teams and played each other during the morning session. The top two teams from each group progress to the last thirty-two and a straight knockout in the afternoon.
Saturday
Hertfordshire one’s team of Alan Spicer, Beverly Stevenson, Julia Bruce and Brian McGivern won all three of their games in the morning beating teams from Hampshire, Worcestershire and Suffolk. The first knockout round saw them drawn against a team from Wiltshire whom they beat with a good score of 9 – 4. Now in the last sixteen, their next opponents were a team from Oxfordshire. In a much closer game our four took the win at 6 – 5. Now they were in the last eight with a place in the quarter finals. They came against a team from Gloucestershire who got the better of them and took the win at 13 – 4. This Gloucester team progressed through the next round and just missed out in the final where they were beaten by the eventual winners Cheshire. Congratulations to them.
Hertfordshire two’s team of Audrey Fowler, Sue Knight, Malcolm Warwick and Brian Fowler won two of their three games and came second in their group. They then played a team from Norfolk in the first round of the knockouts. Norfolk got the upper hand and got the win at 10 – 5.
Hertfordshire three’s team of Angie Baird, Wendy Hunt, Mark Spalding and Darren Brown came up against some strong opposition and only managed to win one of their games and did not progress to the knockouts.
Hertfordshire four’s team of Lisa Miles, Andrew Miles, Margaret Hare and Alan Hare won two of their three games and this placed them top of their group and through to the afternoon knockouts. They got drawn against a strong team from West Midlands. In a close game they just missed out with West Midlands going through with a score of 7 – 6.
Sunday.
Hertfordshire one’s over 55’s team of Andrew Miles and Alan Hare won all three of their games to top their group and were through to the last thirty-two. In knockout round one they came against another West Midlands team. West Midlands took the win at 9 – 4.
Hertfordshire two’s team of Jan Rogers and Julia Bruce won two of their three games and came second in their group to progress to the last thirty-two. Here they played a very strong team from Greater Manchester who took the win at 15 – 4.
Hertfordshire three’s team of Alan Spicer and Brian McGivern managed a win and a draw but were just pushed into third place by Humberside who also had a win and a draw but had a better shot difference.
Hertfordshire four’s team of Tony Duke and Trevor Knight came across some tough opposition, they lost two games but held on for a draw in the third. This was not good enough to see them through to the knockouts.
In a closely fought final the days winners were a team from Cornwall who beat a team from Hampshire 9 – 8.
A good two days work by all our bowlers at the first of the national competitions. The full results can be seen on this website under the heading ‘NATIONAL’. The conclusion of the nationals will be over four days in April when Hertfordshire will be well represented again. Congratulations to all of our entrants this weekend there was plenty of top class bowling to watch. Would you like to take part next year? Then enter the national qualifiers at Stevenage when the new season starts again in September.