Over the weekend, Spalding Lightning competed at the national mixed top club finals at Nottingham Indoor Bowls Club.
The last four consisted of four extremely strong teams and Spalding Lightning were hoping to lift the trophy for a third time after winning the title in 2015 and 2020.
Spalding Lightning’s semi-final opponents on Saturday were four-time winners from Swale.
This was an exciting match which went down to the wire.
The singles disciplines were shared as Chelsea Spencer won the ladies’ singles but Swale fought back to win the men’s singles.
Spalding Lightning won the pairs but lost the fours which meant the tie would be decided by the triples discipline.
Spalding Lightning’s Ruby Hill, Martin Spencer and Jordan Philpott went into the last end 14-13 up and held their nerve well to win 15-13 and help book a place in the final the following morning.
On Sunday, Spalding Lightning’s opposition were defending champions from Exonia who beat Norfolk in their semi-final, in equally exciting fashion.
Unfortunately, Spalding did not start the better of the two teams as Exonia won both singles disciplines which meant that Spalding Lightning needed to either win all three of the remaining disciplines or two out of the three and the overall aggregate to win the title.
They did win the pairs and fours but lost the triples which meant that the title was decided on shots which Exonia won 83-72.
Special thanks to new kit sponsors Bridgestone Tyres and Roythornes Solicitors.
Rink scores: Semi-final: Ladies’ Singles – Chelsea Spencer won 21-17; Men’s Singles – Stephen Harris lost 12-21; Pairs – Annie Dunham and Dominic McVittie won 23-18; Triples – Ruby Hill, Martin Spencer and Jordan Philpott won 15-13; Fours – Jean Patterson, Karen Martin, Graham Smith and Mathew Orrey lost 11-18.
Final: Ladies’ Singles – Chelsea Spencer lost 8-21; Men’s Singles – Harris lost 16-21; Pairs – Dunham and McVittie won 17-8; Triples – Hill, Martin Spencer and Philpott lost 9-20; Fours – Patterson, Martin, Smith and Orrey won 22-13.
On Sunday, Spalding Indoor Bowls Club travelled away to Stamford A in their final fixture of the men’s county league.
Spalding found it tough as they only won on one rink which was skipped by Dan Mills, with Jack Wells, Oliver Stanley and Lewis Parnell who won 24-9.
Stamford A won on the other three rinks which meant that they secured 12 of the available match points and won the southern section of the men’s county league and book their place in the final.
Rink Scores: Wells, Stanley, Parnell and Mills won 24-9; Eric Wakefield, Stuart Callaby, Gavin Staite and Terry Windsor lost 15-23; Tony Westland, Robin Roffe, Anthony Cronin and Martin Simpson lost 10-19; Nick Wilkie, George Almey, Nathan Puttrell and Ian Stafford lost 8-32.
On Thursday, Spalding Indoor Bowls Club played Boston A at home in the over 60s county league.
Spalding won on three of the four rinks and won the aggregate by 19 shots (88-69). This meant that Spalding won 12-2 on match points.
Top winning rink was skipped by Graham Wright, with Dave Overton, George Deaton and Robin Roffe who won 27-14.
Rink Scores: D Overton, G Deaton, R Roffe and G Wright won 27-14; B Hodges, R West, R Billingsley and M Jennings won 22-16; M Stanley, A Tokley, T Windsor and D Amess won 22-17; T Westland, I Stafford, D Nunney and G Hicks lost 17-22.
