Young bowlers impress at national finals

Melton & District indoor Bowls Club began their new season with the Leicestershire under 18s county squad travelling to Malvern Indoor Bowls Club for a pre-National Finals friendly against a squad from Bristol IBC.

Alongside players from Leicester, Barwell and Church Gresley were Isabelle Pymm, Max Magee, Alex Warrington and Grace Wade from Melton. Also from Melton, was county debutant Zac Stevenson-Wheeler.

He settled in well after some early nerves producing some excellent drawing shots throughout the game, helping himself and his team mates Mitch Allen (Leicester) and Alex (Melton) to a 39-9 victory.

Similar victories were achieved on the other rinks with Josh Chambers (Leicester), Grace (Melton) and Fynn Kyser (Barwell) scoring 48-9, Alice Atkin (Church Gresley), Max (Melton) and Kat Bowman (Leicester) scoring 26 -8 and Isabelle (Melton), Ellie Hamblett and Kieran Chambers (both Barwell) scoring 31-8 for an overall 144-34 win.

In the under 18 National Final three Melton Juniors made the trip to Nottingham for the postponed 2019-2020 event.

Taking part in the under 18 county double, triples semi-final were Isabelle Pymm, Max Magee and Alexander Warrington, along with fellow teammates Alice Atkin, Ellie Dawson, Kieran Chambers and travelling reserve Joshua Toon, who found themselves facing a formidable team from Kent.

A tentative start was made on both rinks, leaving them level pegging after three ends.

The next few ends saw a gap appearing between the teams.

Combined with a few extremely close measured ends, none of which went Leicestershire’s way, it seemed the chance of a place in the final was slipping away.

Holding their heads high they battled on and despite falling further behind.

The side went into the last two ends still with some the hope they could cross the line the victors.

However, Kent ran out 41-33 winners.

Kent went onto to claim the title over the previous season’s winners Somerset.

The English Indoor Bowls Association’s over 50 finals were held at Nottingham.

The finals were supposed to be played in April 2020 but were cancelled due to the pandemic.

The Melton and District team consisting of Peter White, Mark Warrington and John Robinson defeated a team from Grantham in the area final, winning comfortably 21-9 and putting them through into the last 16 to be played at Nottingham.

In the first round the Melton team took on a team from North Wiltshire, winning comfortably 18-11 and putting them into the quarter-finals.

There the Melton team were up against stiff completion, taking on a team from Egham.

Melton fought back from 13-1 and 16-5 down to pull 16-14 behind.

However, the team from Egham then took tow shots on the next end and further points in the last few ends to win 20-14.