Jordan Philpott lifted the national under-25 singles trophy at the national finals in Leamington Spa last Tuesday.
As county champion, Philpott was representing Lincolnshire at the championships – and plays his club bowls out of Royal Mail Cart in Spalding.
He started the competition with a comfortable 21-13 win against Josh Halcrow from Durham before a nail-biting 21-19 win against Scott Eveleigh from Devon in the last 32.
Nottinghamshire’s champion Thomas Towle awaited in the last 16, but the South Holland star soon dispatched him 21-15 to make it through to the quarter-final the following day.
It was always going to be tough in the latter stages of the competition, but Philpott certainly showed his class to beat Callum Riddleston from Leicestershire 21-16 in the quarter-final and then Mac May (Huntingdonshire) 21-18 in the semi-final.
This set up a final against fellow junior international, Harry Goodwin (Devon).
Goodwin was fresh from winning the under-25 pairs competition only a few days before, but Philpott did not let this bother him.
It was the youngster from Devon who made the better start at 8-3, but the Lincolnshire champion showed his fighting qualities to go 9-8 up.
The next few ends were very nip and tuck as Goodwin led 16-14.
But Philpott was not ready to give up and played three exceptional ends to score 3, 3, 1, win the final 21-16 and lift the trophy for the first time.
Speaking after the game, which was played a day after his 24th birthday, Philpott said: “I’ve battled hard over the last couple of days.
“I’ve had no easy games and the hardest was definitely the final. I’m really happy!”
