British Wheelchair Bowls Association
Wales Squeeze Home in Home Countries Photo-Finish
Wheelchair bowlers travelled to England this year for the annual Home Countries Bowls Championship where Scotland were seeking a trio of victories. A fixture in the wheelchair bowls calendar the event was now its 30th year. Sadly, the venue was changed at short notice from Belfast. Northern Ireland’s organizer Alan Kirkwood died suddenly and so England stepped in to host at Stoke Mandeville IBC. Mindful of dedicating the Championship to Alan Kirkwood, competitors respected his memory by competing fully on the green.
A three-day team event, two points are scored for a win and one for a draw, the winners being the team with most points at the end of day-three. Teams are made up of ‘para’ bowlers and ‘tetra’ bowlers. The former play from BWBA-approved wheelchairs, whilst the latter play with smaller 2 ½" woods – smaller woods yes, but the same game on a smaller scale and arguably more difficult as these little woods swing so much more than conventional woods.
This year’s competition was notable for a few other reasons. Welsh team member Chris Gibson has played in all thirty Home Countries Championships. Continuing with the Welsh theme, there were two debutants in their team – Anthony Sprague and Howard Dare. Whilst both are resident in England they are of Welsh parentage, a characteristic they share with their team-mate and retired policeman Dave Powell. Dare and Sprague are the fifth bowlers to play for either England or Wales who have played for the Plymouth Mayflower IBC, Devon. The others are Ian Blackmore, Alan McArdle and Roger Wilton (all England).
Probably the most important match-up on day-one was the Anglo-Welsh triples of P.Powell, P.Brown & L.Davis (England) and H.Dare, C.Gibson & K.Woolmore (Wales). England led with three ends to go, and went further ahead when they picked up a four but disaster struck when the Welsh took back a six and then a single on the final end to tie the game 11-11. Another notable game from this first session saw Welsh tetra bowler Nigel Smith come back to bowls after a few years off and start with a win against England’s Alan Care. Northern Ireland struggled on day-one, but it was Scotland who came out on top and at the end of the first day the team scores stood at: -
England 9; Northern Ireland 4; Scotland 12; Wales 11
Day-two did not go well for the Irish but Scotland were very happy with two final end victories over the ‘auld enemy’ and the Welsh bagged fourteen points out a possible eighteen available over the day. Scotland and England took ten points over the day. Highlights from the day’s play were a one shot victory by the Welsh Captain over his English counterpart and a first victory for the English tetras.
At the end of day-two the scores were –
England 19; Northern Ireland 6; Scotland 22; Wales 25
The final round of matches on day-three had all first to third places up for grabs depending upon the results of that day. England needed to win all their three matches and hope that Scotland would beat Wales in their two match ups. Scotland had to win those Scots-Welsh head-to-heads to win; whilst all the Welsh had to do was win one match against the challengers from North of the border. The Welsh concentrated on this objective and put captain K.Woolmore along with D.Powell in a pairing against J.Smith and the veteran A.Black. The Scots went 0 – 10 down and never really recovered and eventually lost 5 –14. Cue Welsh cheers, they could not now be caught.
Meanwhile England were busy bagging all six available points from their three matches which meant that Scotland had to win two games to secure second spot. The harder of those games saw two experienced bowlers playing out a singles, C.Gibson (Wales) and I.Prior (Scotland). Prior had had another good three days and ran out victor by eleven shots. So all eyes turned to Scottish debutant W.Harrison up against the inexperienced S.O’Kane (NI). Harrison took an early lead 12-3 but O’Kane pulled back to 11-16 to be within striking distance. However, Harrison held his nerve for a first singles win and the Scots took second place. The final scores were: -
England 25; Northern Ireland 6; Scotland 26; Wales 27
In addition to winning the Championship, Welsh bowlers picked up the personal awards. The para bowler of the championship was Adrian Foley and the tetra bowler was Nigel Smith, popular choices with all.
BWBA Chairman, Ian Blackmore thanked all those involved in the planning of the event and went to say, "This was one of the tightest finishes in the history of the event - just one extra victory for any of the top three teams could have seen a different winner. It is fitting end to an event dedicated to the memory of the late Northern Irish bowler Alan Kirkwood." Alan’s widow, Linden, was the guest of honour at the presentations and handed over the Trophy to the victorious ‘boyos’ and ‘girlos’ from the Valleys. Next year’s event will be formally hosted in England over the first May Bank Holiday.