Spalding Indoor Bowls Club’s under-25 have reached the quarter-finals of the national competition after beating a very strong team from Rugby.
The game was played on a home and away basis, with Lauren Finbow, Rhys Hill and Ben Wilson featuring away and Aaron Barnes, Ruby Hill and Jordan Philpott performing at home for Spalding.
By the time the home rink had played five ends they were leading 5-3, but the away rink were only just starting their third end as three of the first six ends had been killed. Therefore, the away rink was always behind and, with the game being very tight, all the way through the result was always in doubt.
However, Philpott finished up winning by two (16-14), with Wilson playing his last end two behind (13-15), and level overall. They managed to gain two shots to claim the victory and set up a last four tie with Scarborough on March 4.
- Spalding IBC’s friendly section played host to a strong team from Grantham and won 118-81 on aggregate.
Both teams won on three rinks, with the best winning rink honours for Spalding going to the team of Brian Skelton, Chris Broughton, Gerald Horner and skip Geoff Craft. Captain of the day was
Roger Perkins.
- Spalding’s mixed County team travelled to Lincoln to play on their super-fast surface on Sunday.
Despite behind hit by illness, the team put a very worthwhile performance against the home team.
As can only be expected, Lincoln went ahead from an early stage – but Spalding hung on and actually raised their game so that, by the halfway point, they were making serious inroads into
Lincoln’s lead and were trailing by only nine shots overall.
The final result was that Spalding won on three out of the five rinks, but lost the aggregate by four shots with the score 91-87 in the home side’s favour.
This was a hard-fought match played in the best of sportsmanship and enjoyed by all giving Spalding a justified six points to Lincoln’s 12. Captain of the day was Roger Perkins, who was assisted by match cashier Pauline Jennings.