Spalding Indoor Bowls Club’s Jordan Philpott and Stephen Harris represented England in the men’s under-25 international series at Stanley Indoor Bowls Club in Durham over the weekend.
Philpott played number three in a rink skipped by British Isles Singles Champion, Jack Bird (York), with new cap Joseph Vanderpeer (Oyster) and Adam Pitfield (Wellingborough) at the front end, while Harris led another rink with new caps Jamie Tindall (Wey Valley) and Sam Moss (Falcon), skipped by Jamie Barker (St Neots).
The first match of the series saw England face their old enemy, Scotland.
England spent most of the match chasing their strong opponents, but finished strongly to ensure an exciting conclusion which kept the crowd on the edge of their seats.
Going into the last end, England were one shot (76-75) ahead but Scotland picked up a single on the final end to draw the match.
Philpott’s rink had a hard fought 17-15 rink win, while Harris’ set narrowly lost 22-23.
The other match of the morning session saw Wales beat Ireland in another close finish, 70-69.
The afternoon session saw England play Ireland in a must-win match for both teams to keep their series hopes alive.
England found Ireland too strong on the day and only managed to draw on one rink, losing out on the other three.
Philpott’s rink held out for the draw, 16-16 and Harris’ set lost 13-20.
With Scotland beating Wales 93-64 in the other afternoon game, this put an end to England’s series winning hopes – but pride was certainly all to play for in their final match on the Sunday morning against last season’s champions, Wales.
England stamped their authority from their outset and performed exceptionally well to secure a comfortable 55 shot win (106-51).
Philpott’s rink finished their weekend with a 32-12 rink win, while Harris’ set again found their opposition in top form and lost out 13-20.
Scotland won the series with a convincing 122-53 win against Ireland, which meant that England finished in second place with Ireland in third and Wales fourth.
The Spalding boys will have wanted to have come home with the series win –but getting selected to play for your country is a fantastic achievement in itself.
- Spalding IBC continued their mixed top club campaign with a national quarter final win against Blackpool Newton Hall at the neutral venue of York and District IBC on Sunday.
This was a match which was always destined to go down to the wire, it was Spalding who started the stronger of the two teams with comfortable wins in the men’s and ladies’ singles.
This meant that Spalding needed one more win out of the pairs, triples and fours disciplines and to secure the overall aggregate.
Blackpool fought back with a win in the fours and then the pairs, which was skipped by former world singles champion Mark Dawes.
But, with Spalding well in front on aggregate, the tie would be decided on the triples.
Going into the last end, Spalding were 13-9 ahead. They played a good last end to collect a single, win the discipline 14-9 and safely secure their place in the national semi-final, where they will play Egham on April 18.
The other semi-final will be contested between Exonia and St Neots, with the last four games and final to be played on the same day at Riverain IBC.
Rink scores: Ladies’ singles – Chelsea Tomlin won 21-9; men’s singles – Stephen Harris won 21-11; pairs – Ruby Hill and Jordan Philpott lost 14-21; triples – Andy Dunham, Annie Dunham and Martin Spencer won 14-9; fours – Jean Patterson, Lauren Finbow, Brian Martin and Graham Smith lost 12-17.
- Last weekend also saw the county sets singles and over-60s singles playoffs, with four Spalding players involved at Louth IBC on Saturday.
Defending champion, Graham Smith, Kevin Ekins, Martin Spencer and Matt Whyers comfortably won their opening matches against David Bristow (Sleaford), Andy Hall, Kevin Lewis and Will Bell (all Lincoln) respectively.
The last 16 saw the fall of the defending champion against Boston’s Scott Whyers however, Spalding’s other three qualifiers negotiated their last 16 opponents.
Ekins comfortably beat Steve Derby (Lincoln) in straight sets, while it took the last end of the tie break for Spencer to see off Ian Clark from Boston and for Whyers to beat Alex Tomlin, also of Boston.
Ekins was the first Spalding player to book his place in the semi-final as he beat Paul Bark from Horncastle (1.5-0.5).
The other semi-finalist was decided by the all-Spalding quarter-final clash between Whyers and Spencer.
In a high quality encounter, Whyers drew shot within six inches of the jack on the last end of the tie break to win the match and secure a semi-final against Ekins.
The other semi-final will be contested by Lincoln’s Kevin Rands and Matt’s cousin, Scott Whyers from Boston.
