Star Spalding Indoor Bowls Club duo Matt Whyers and Graham Smith played a vital role in England’s victory in the British Isles Series last week.
Whyers was making his debut in the side as lead at the Stanley event, while the vastly experienced Smith joined him at number two.
Swale’s Perry Martin and Taunton Deane’s Rob Paxton made up the back-end.
In their first match against Ireland, Whyers and Smith recorded a 22-19 victory over G Kelly, with England winning overall by 105-91 shots.
Next up was Wales – and the Spalding duo once again played their part in an England win, this time beating J Breen 17-16, with England winning 133-86.
It was all to play for the final match against Scotland, with England looking for the victory, but knowing that they could afford to narrowly lose and still win the series, after Scotland had lost to Ireland the previous day.
Despite Scotland’s blistering start, leading by over 30 shots at 12 ends, England staged a thrilling fight back over the final stages to sufficiently reduce the deficit to five shots and take the Series win.
Overall score was 112-107 in Scotland’s favour, but Smith and and Whyers won by 19 shots to 16 to record a perfect three wins from three.
- Whyers and Smith were joined by Ash Caress in the British Isles Championships, which was played just before the series.
They qualified in the triples, following their national triumph the year before.
In the semi-finals, they beat Andrew Kyle from Ireland by 18 shots to 15 in a high quality match.
Next up were Wales, with the Spalding trio hoping to add to last year’s title.
Despite playing well, they found Dai Prosser in fine form and lost by 18 shots to 15.
- Spalding IBC’s mixed Top Club team are through to the National finals after a comfortable quarter-final victory over Nottingham on Sunday.
The match consisted of men’s and ladies’ singles, mixed pairs, mixed triples and mixed fours, with 16 points up for grabs.
Despite Spalding being the home team, it was Nottingham who started well and took the lead in the pairs and triples events.
However, an early win in the ladies’ singles for Chelsea Tomlin recorded the first points on the board for the hosts with a 21-9 victory over J Turner.
The mixed fours of Rebecca Simpson, Gloria Haney, Ashley Caress and Graham Smith started well and never looked back, securing a comfortable 31-9 win over R Pearce.
Matt Whyers then found himself 11-5 down against K Burton, but he found his form and launched a comeback to win 17-12.
With the victory confirmed, Nottingham conceded before the pairs and triples had completed their match.
Ruby Hill and Martin Spencer settled for a 17-17 draw against D Robinson, while Jordan Philpott, Annie Dunham and Scott Dunham were 17-9 down.
Spalding travel to Bristol on April 25 for the finals.
p Spalding IBC hosted Stamford in a county men’s division three fixture on Saturday – but it was the visitors who took the honours by 99 shots to 90.
Spalding had one winning rink, which consisted of T Bell, A Belding, R Perkins and I Stafford, who won 20-15. Spalding also had a drawn rink.
Captain for the day was Ron Walpole
