The national finals at Nottingham IBC moved into its third week, kicking off with both the men’s and ladies’ pairs events which saw players from Spalding Lightning taking part.
New pairing for this season, Jordan Philpott and Dominic McVIttie, started their efforts in the men’s pairs at the last 16 stage against Jack Fairhall and David Hubbard, from Adur IBC, winning by 21 shots to 14.
In the quarter finals they played Bradley Prowle and Tony Webb (Riverain IBC) and again came out on top, with a 17 shots to 11 success.
In the semi finals Philpott and McVittie played Daniel Pool and Martyn Rice (Cumbria IBC) and again won by 18 shots to 14.
The final saw Philpott and McVittie versus Adam Smith and senior international Andy Walters (Welford-On-Avon IBC) and although it remained close throughout the game, the pair maintained a lead and went into the last end five shots ahead (15-10).
The Welford pair played a superb last end and laid at least the five shots they needed to go into an extra end with McVittie having just one bowl to potentially save the match as Walters had one bowl left also.
McVittie found an absolute ‘worldie’ to lay a second shot which the opposition could not remove and so they won the match and the title by 15 shots to 11.
In the ladies’ pairs Ruby Philpott and Chelsea Spencer started off against Val Hobart and Ellie Hamblett (Barwell IBC) in the last 16 and romped home winning by 24 shots to three.
The quarter finals saw them play Kay Ferguson and senior international Sian Honnor (Oyster IBC) and again they succeeded this time by 19 shots to 12.
In the semi finals they played junior international Jorja Jackson and senior international Chloe Brett (Huntingdon IBC).
This match was especially close with the lead changing hands a few times, however the Huntingdon women edged the game by 12 shots to 14.
- After losing a tight semi final in the national men’s under 25 singles earlier in the season, Owen Aspinall qualified for the final stages of the open under 18 singles at Nottingham IBC.
The 16 juniors are placed into four groups of four players, each playing three games of two sets to determine a group winner and who then plays a semi final and then final.
Aspinall played Vinnie Minter (Adur IBC), Dontai Joseph (Bodmin IBC) and Ollie Shearing (Barking IBC) and managed to qualify for the semi finals after a straight sets win against Minter, and two tied set matches against the other two players.
In the semi final, Aspinall faced Louie Hodges (MidGlos IBC) and after a first set success (5-4), the opposition came back to take the second set 2-8 and therefore a three end tie break was needed.
Aspinall came through 2-1 and progressed to his first individual indoor national final to play Dylan Williamson, again from the MidGlos club.
The match saw Aspinall start the strongest with a first set win (7-4).
He then backed this up with a whitewash second set victory (6-0) to win the title.
- The open pairs represented by Dan Mills and Kevin Ekins took place at Nottingham IBC and saw them start their campaign at the last 16 stage against Lee Maughan and Mark Higgins (Hartlepool IBC) which they won in straight sets (14-7, 10-5).
In the quarter finals they competed against Neil Smith and Mikey Titcombe (Westlecot IBC) and although they lost the first set 4-13, they bounced back to take a very close second set 7-6 which put them into a one end tie break, however the Westlecot pair won and qualified for the semi finals
- The Spalding Lightning national under-30 open inter-club double rink team had to wait towards the end of the national championships for their chance of success, with the side looking for their third national title in four years in this competition.
The semi final was against Solihull IBC, who proved too strong for Lightning and won the match well on both rinks by an overall score of 24 shots to 39.
The rink of Mills, Aspinall and Stephen Harris lost out in a close tie 14-17 against senior internationals Izzie White and Emily Kernick, joined by Matt Grundy.
The other rink of Danielle Wild, Ruby Philpott and Jordan Philpott were defeated 10-22 by junior international Hannah Smith, Callum Mitchell and former men’s national singles champion Tom Holmes.
- A friendly match between the ladies’ Trudy Bates team and the men’s over 60s team took place at Long Sutton to finish their respective indoor seasons.
In the end, the ladies, led by captain Julie Hicks, managed to take the match on three of the four rinks and by the overall score of 61 shots to 42.
