Spalding Indoor Bowls Club’s Top Club team are the national champions after two stunning wins over Wellingborough and Bournemouth.
The event consists of men’s and ladies’ singles, mixed pairs, mixed triples and mixed fours – with Spalding travelling to Bristol hoping to go one better than last year, when they lost by a single shot in the final.
In the semi-final, Spalding played Wellingborough and, as expected, this was a close contest between two evenly matched teams.
In the ladies’ singles, Chelsea Tomlin registered the first points on the board with a 16-12 victory against Chloe Wordingham, swiftly followed by Matt Whyers in the men’s singles, who beat Dave Love 25-6.
With a healthy aggregate score, Spalding only needed one more victory to reach the final, which came courtesy of the trio of Jordan Philpott, Annie Dunham and Paul Simpson, who beat Darren Lyman’s rink 19-14.
Wellingborough’s other two rinks conceded, with Ruby Hill and Martin Spencer leading Jamie Walker 24-19 in an impressive comeback after behind early on. In the fours, Lucy Cooke, Gloria
Haney, Ashley Caress and Graham Smith found Paul Broderick’s set in fine form, losing by 29-12.
It mattered little, though, as on overall points Spalding prevailed 12-4.
Bournemouth, who beat defending champions Desborough, awaited in the final.
Despite a close first few ends, the final proved to be a one-sided affair with Spalding winning all events.
Tomlin won a tense last end to win 17-15 against Sue Dadson, with Matt Whyers following up with a 19-11 victory over Tom Warner.
With Spalding in control of the remaining three events, Bournemouth conceded the match and Spalding became national champions.
The pairs beat Ben Paulley 16-12, triples were 21-13 up against Chris Daniels and the fours recorded a comfortable 29-11 victory over Nick Revell to secure the full 16 points.
Having suffered heartbreak in a number of national finals, this win was just the tonic for the Spalding side.
