Spalding Lightning’s Owen Aspinall just lost out in the semi final of the national under 25 men’s singles finals to the eventual winner.
The later stages of the competition were held last weekend at Dolphin IBC in Poole, Dorset and Aspinall qualified for the finals with relative ease after three straight set wins.
In the last 16 match, Aspinall faced Joshua Rowe, from Folkestone IBC, and came through a close game in a last end tie break win (9-3, 4-7, 2-1).
In the quarter finals, he played Sammy Tindall, from Egham IBC, and won this tie in straight sets (9-5, 7-6) to advance to the semi final against the reigning outdoor national men’s under 25 singles champion, Charlie Beeton, from Ipswich IBC.
This tie was aired on the EIBA TV live stream and saw Aspinall lose out in the first set by 12 shots to six but bounce back by collecting the required three shots on the final end of the second set to come from 8-5 down to win that 9-8 and so enter a three-end tie break.
In this tie break, Beeton won the first end and Aspinall secured the second, therefore the match went to a deciding third end.
Unfortunately for Aspinall, Beeton obtained the end, the tie break and the match by two sets to one and got through to the final (which he later won in straight sets).
Although Aspinall missed out on a chance of glory, it was a great experience and we are sure to see him bounce back at later events towards the end of the season and of course in future years.
- After losing in their match away at Horncastle IBC the week before, the Spalding Lightning men’s county league team were looking to get back to winning ways with their fourth match of the season, with a fixture at home against Louth IBC last Saturday.
They managed to do this in good style, winning by 106 shots to 60.
The team won on three out of the four rinks and getting 12 of the available 14 points.
The top winning rink was skipped by Dominic McVittie, with Ben Sharp, David Nunney and Calvin Leuty, who won 32-11.
Their next match is away against Lincoln on Saturday, February 14.
Rink scores: Ben Sharp, David Nunney, Calvin Leuty and Dominic McVittie won 32-11; Mick Dolton, Ian Harwood, Dan Mills and Martin Simpson won 30-15; Nathan Puttrell, Gavin Staite, Lewis Parnell and Kevin Ekins won 27-15; Paul Turner, Anthony Cronin, James Teesdale and Brian Martin lost 17-19.
- With six out of six league defeats so far this season, the Spalding Lightning men’s over 60s team were still searching for that winning feeling, and last Thursday saw them play at home versus Scunthorpe IBC.
Consequently, they won their first match of the campaign to lift them themselves off the bottom of the table by 84 shots to 71 and collected 11 points from the maximum 14 available.
The team won on two rinks, drew on one rink and lost on one rink with the top winning rink skipped by Ian Harwood, with Tony Westland, David Amess and Rob West who won 30-17.
Their next match is away against Louth IBC on Friday, February 13.
Rink scores: Tony Westland, David Amess, Rob West and Ian Harwood won 30-17; Martyn Stanley, Cliff Lattimer, Graham Hicks and David Nunney won 22-14; Ian Stafford, Chris Judd, Robin Roffe and Anthony Cronin drew 20-20; Mick Dolton, Paul Turner, Terry Windsor and Martin Simpson lost 12-20.
- The Spalding Lightning ladies’ Trudy Bates team faced off away from home against top of the table Lincoln last Thursday, with this unfortunately seeing a heavy defeat for our side by 91 shots to 56 and not obtaining any rink wins or match points, losing 14-0.
The Lincoln carpet is always difficult to adjust to as the pace is usually very quick and does catch a lot of away bowlers out especially early on in the match, with the Lincoln ladies never letting the Spalding ladies get into their usual stride and so resulting in an all four rink defeat.
Captain Julie Hicks thanked those who filled in and played as well as those who changed rinks leading up to the game.
Their next match is away against Boston IBC on Thursday, February 5.
Rink scores: Judy Jackson, Doris Rawding, Maggie Wheatley and Julie Hicks lost 15-17; Ann Newbury, Paula Lawson, Carole Nunney and Betty Deaton lost 15-19; Shelia Chamberlain, Gill Haydon, June Taylor and Maisie Belding lost 14-22; Christine Williamson, Sue Slayven, Mandy Parkins and Karen Martin lost 12-33.
- The Spalding Lightning friendly team took a trip to Grantham IBC and saw a comprehensive victory for the home side putting out a very strong team and winning by 149 shots to 50.
The match was again played in six rinks of triples and saw a dominant display from Grantham to win all these rinks.
The next friendly is away versus Horncastle IBC on Sunday, February 15.
- Last Saturday saw the qualifying stages for the under 18 county singles being staged at Lincoln IBC and saw four of our junior bowlers competing in Aidan Brickles, Jessica Butters, Max Butters and Oscar Butters.
Although both Jessica and Oscar got knocked out in the group stages, both Brickles and Max qualified for the quarter finals and played Chloe Bland (Cleethorpes IBC) and Jess Hall (Lincoln IBC) respectively.
Unfortunately for our boys, they were both defeated at this stage in close matches and on this occasion we see no Lightning representation in the final period.
- Congratulations to the Lincolnshire WIBA ladies’ Midland Counties team, as they won their first match of the season in their third fixture 125-78 versus Northamptonshire WIBA at Sleaford IBC last Sunday.
The players representing Lincolnshire from Spalding were Maisie Belding, Betty Deaton, Louise Harris, Karen Martin, Ann Newbury and Maggie Wheatley.
