Not content with organising the event, local international Graham Smith picked up the first prize at this year’s Spalding Open tournament.
The 2012 winner won Spalding Indoor Bowls Club’s Jet2Holidays marquee event last weekend and the ranking points also helped him move up to 11 on the Open Singles Circuit ranking list.
Smith beat former world singles champion Mark Dawes from Blackpool in the semi-final before facing British singles champion Jack Bird from York in the final.
The final was played to the expected high standard and the crowd were kept on the edge of their seats. Smith, who lost in the final a year ago, was chasing for the majority of the first set but played a great bowl to make two shots on the last end of the first set to tie the set 7-7.
In the second set, it was Bird who won the early exchanges but Smith played a good end at the right time to collect a full house of four shots on the penultimate end of the set to go into the last end 7-5 ahead.
Smith consolidated well to only drop a single on the final end, win the set 7-6 and the match, 1.5-0.5. Smith walked away with the £800 first prize and his name on the trophy for the second time.
Elsewhere fellow Spalding international Ruby Hill reached the quarter-finals of the tournament where she was beaten by another former world singles champion in Nicky Brett. There was also a day to remember for 10-year-old Ollie Jeapes from Stamford who lost to Dawes in straight sets in the first round.
