Spalding Lightning club member and England international, Dominic McVittie played in the prestigious Hong Kong Classic tournament over the last couple of weeks representing Bowls England in both the men’s singles and men’s pairs alongside Harry Goodwin from Kent.
Although the singles did not go well with an early defeat and elimination, the pairs competition was run differently over a group stage and then the knock-out phase.
Goodwin and McVittie topped their group with six wins and one draw in their 11 games and qualified for the quarter final against New Zealand who were duly dispatched in straight sets (8-5, 6-4).
In the semi final versus Malaysia, they were even more dominant with another straight sets win (12-3, 13-3).
This put them into the final and a meeting with the ‘auld enemy’, Scotland.
Scotland stole the first set with one shot on the last end (7-8) and in a topsy-turvy second set saw the Scots take that also (9-14), the match and the gold medal.
However, many congratulations to Goodwin and McVittie for their silver medal achievement and additionally, well done to Devon’s Sophie Tolchard and Lincolnshire’s Amy Pharaoh who won bronze in the ladies’ pairs with all four England representatives bringing home medals and memories to savour.
* The Spalding Lightning national under 30 open inter-club double rink team secured another excellent victory, this time in the third round versus a strong Nottingham IBC outfit last Sunday by 38 shots to 22.
The home rink at Long Sutton of Danielle Wild, Ruby Philpott and Jordan Philpott never looked in trouble and maintained a comfortable lead to win their rink 20-9 whilst the away rink at Nottingham of Dan Mills, Owen
Aspinall and Stephen Harris after a bad start losing 1-12 stormed back and won by five shots (18-13) to secure the overall victory.
The next round is in the national quarter final against York IBC in the New Year on Saturday, February 21.
* The Spalding Lightning friendly team participated their second fixture of the season, with a team from Peterborough coming over to Long Sutton to play.
The match was fiercely contested but at the end of proceedings, Lightning won by 34 shots (84-50). Winning on three rinks and drawing on the fourth, the top winning rink for Spalding was skipped by Ian Stafford, with one of our junior members Cooper Wells, Tony Westland and Paula Lawson who won 25-12.
The next scheduled friendly is at home in a rematch versus the Lincs VPs on November 30.
* After a heavy defeat in their opening game, Spalding Lightning looked to bounce back in the men’s over 60s division 1 league last Thursday away versus Horncastle IBC. However the opposition put in a good performance at their own venue and Lightning lost by 84 shots to 54 and only gained one rink and two points from the maximum 14 available.
This winning rink was skipped by Martin Simpson, with Mike Taylor, Paul Turner and Terry Windsor who won 17-13.
Their next match is away against Scunthorpe IBC on Friday, November 28.
Rink Scores: Mike Taylor, Paul Turner, Terry Windsor and Martin Simpson won 17-13; Tony Westland, Rob West, Anthony Cronin and David Nunney lost 14-20; Martyn Stanley, Pete Bendell, Graham Hicks and Ian Harwood lost 10-22; Mick Dolton, David Amess, Ian Stafford & Chris Warboys lost 13-29.
* The Spalding Lightning mixed county league team played in their third division one match of the season, this one away against Boston IBC last Sunday afternoon and collected their second defeat by 73 shots to 65 and only gained one rink and two points from the maximum 14 available.
This winning rink was skipped by James Teesdale, ably assisted by Gill Haydon, Ben Sharp and Karen Martin who won 29-9. Their next match is at home versus Louth on Sunday, December. 7
Rink Scores: Gill Haydon, Ben Sharp, Karen Martin and James Teesdale 29-9; George Deaton, Carole Nunney, Betty Deaton and David Nunney lost 13-17; Christine Williamson, June Taylor, Mike Taylor and Anthony Cronin lost 13-22; Ann Newbury, Tony Westland, Maggie Wheatley and Rob West lost 10-25.
* The Lincolnshire men’s over 60 inter-county team, lost in defence of their national title won last season in the opening round match on Tuesday, November 18 by just one shot (116-117) versus Norfolk with three rinks played at Lincoln IBC and three rinks played at County Arts IBC.
The players representing Lincolnshire from Spalding were Brian Martin, Martin Simpson and Nick Wilkie.
