Spalding Indoor Bowls Club’s Stephen Harris beat world number one Greg Harlow as he enjoyed a fantastic run in the Stamford Open – but just missed out on overall glory.
Despite beating former world champion Harlow in the last four, Spalding’s Harris was beaten by Michael Knight (Whiteknights) in the tournament finale.
He wasn’t the only SIBC representative in the last four, with Graham Smith beaten by eventual winner Knight at the semi-final stage.
Team-mates Jordan Philpott and Matt Whyers also lost to Harlow and Knight in the quarter-finals respectively.
Harris started the tournament with straight sets victories against Peterborough’s Jeff Pitt (8-2, 6-4) and Grantham bowler Terry Berridge (5-3, 6-2). Paul Oke, from Sleaford, proved more of a test in the last 16 as Harris beat him 2-0 in the decisive tie break (4-5, 7-4, 2-0).
An open quarter final draw then matched Harris up with Ipswich’s Lea Blackham. After losing the first set, Harris fought back well to win the second set and, again, prevailed 2-0 on the tie break (3-6, 4-3, 2-0).
Next up for Harris was City of Ely ace Harlow, the world’s leading player, in the semi-finals.
In a high quality encounter, Harris won in straight sets, both by a single shot (7-6, 5-4).
After a long day, the last two men standing were Harris and Berkshire-based Knight.
After drawing the first set, Harris just fell short, losing out in the final 0.5-1.5 (7-7, 2-7).
Spalding star Harris received the runners-up cheque of £300, together with valuable points towards the Open Singles Circuit ranking list – which sees the top 32 players compete at the grand finals at the beginning of the 2019-20 season.
- Spalding ran out comfortable 136-72 winners as they played host to a friendly team from Perkins Retired last Saturday.
The top winning rink was skipped by Mick Jennings, with Judy Dolton, Jenny Collins and Ian Stafford.
Captain for the day was Ken Challans, ably assisted by Tony Westland.
- Spalding’s friendly side earned a well-deserved 108-93 win on their first-ever visit to Newark IBC.
Their top winning rink was skipped by Peter Ridley, with Sue Lovett and Lily Drawbridge. Captain for the day was Roger Perkins.
- Spalding IBC’s men started their Lincs League campaign with a 14-4 (117-76) victory over Skegness on their own green.
Top winning rink was skipped by Kevin Ekins, with James Cherry, Ian Stafford and Aaron Barnes (37-9), while Martin Spencer (27-13) and Jordan Philpott’s (23-17) rinks both won well too.
The rinks of Graham Wright (16-19) and Maurice Elding (14-18) were edged out.
