Riverain’s Glenn Williams beat Connor Cinato 2-1 in a high-quality final at the Castle Sports Complex to become the Under-25 Spalding Open champion for 2018 on Saturday.
The Premier threes tournament was generously sponsored by Jet2.com holiday – who donated £700 in prize money – and saw some of the best young players in the region in action.
Williams, facing Cinato who was chasing the double having won the Spalding Open in December, was in great form all day and qualified for the knockout stages after the round robin group matches.
In the quarter-finals Williams beat Rebecca Moorbey 2-1, while Cinato beat Spalding’s Jordan Philpott 2-0, Dan Seabourne saw off Dan Mills 2-0 and Stephen Harris edged out home ace Ruby Hill 2-1.
The last four showdowns saw Cinato play Seabourne and continue his ruthless form, winning 2-0 (4-0, 4-1).
Williams faced a tougher test as he scraped though against Harris 2-1 (0-3, 4-0, 4-1).
The final lived up to expectation, as Williams controlled the first set, posting a 5-2 score-line.
Cinato fought back to take a 2-1 set victory and force a decider.
A nip and tuck set then saw Williams lead 3-0 into the last end and, despite a great effort, Cinato couldn’t gain the three he needed to force a tie break.
Williams was crowned champion, taking the title and £300 first prize, while Cinato received £100 for his efforts.
Spalding Indoor Bowls Club’s thanks go to tournament organiser Graham Smith and Beth Smith for running the day.
Thanks also go to Trevor Wootton and Colin Wilson who umpired, and all the markers and helpers throughout the day.
- Spalding IBC’s Chelsea Tomlin and Martin Spencer had good runs in their respective Champion of Champion singles events, with Tomlin losing the semi-finals and Spencer beaten in the quarters.
They had qualified courtesy of winning their Spalding club singles the previous year and, after further qualifying matches in the region, qualified for the finals stages at the Warners Leisure Resort, Hayling Island over the weekend.
Spencer won his first match against Jamie Holmes by 21 shots to 15 before losing a nail-biter 21-20 in the last eight, to Michael Cheeseman from the Cyphers club.
Tomlin received a bye in her first match before beating Rebecca Wigfield 21-16.
Unfortunately, she found eventual winner Katherine Rednall in good form, losing 21-14.
- Spalding IBC’s latest game of the season was away against Lincoln C on Thursday.
Spalding started strongly and were always winning comfortably on two rinks, with the other two quite close.
At the conclusion of the match, the hosts had managed to seal narrow wins on the remaining three rinks, but it was Spalding who took the aggregate points 12-6.
The final aggregate score saw Spalding prevail 103-82, with the best winning rink skipped by Mick Dolton.
He was ably assisted by Alan Browne, Derek Groves and Derek Overton.
Captains for the day were David Lunn and Graham Hicks.
- Spalding IBC’s mixed team played their third fixture in recent weeks, this time losing at Horncastle.
They took only two rink victories and lost on overall aggregate.
The team found the Horncastle green difficult to adjust to, but Jan Sinclair, June Taylor, Mick Dolton and Maurice Elding had no problems, as they secured an impressive win for the visitors.
