Double Delight for Ben in World Bowls Tour events!
- manager4961
- Oct 28
- 2 min read
Ben Harris has been in fine form over recent weeks and has booked his place at Potters in the World Indoor Pairs Championships.
Ben made the long trip to Guernsey along side his team mate Connor Chamberlain (from Church Gresley) to play in WBT qualifying events for the Singles and Pairs. Singles matches took place on Saturday with Ben reaching the third round before losing to Alison Merrien MBE (3-8, 6-1, 0-2).
Sunday's pairs event started with a 2-0 win over Paul and Alan Merrien (7-5,11-3) followed by further wins over Alison and Ian Merrien (5-4,8-2), Micheal and John Lynch (7-3, 8-4) and a Semi-Final win over Luke Bell & Greg Davis (8-3, 7-3) put them one game away from Potters.
Their opponents, Jack Wells & Sam King, started the final well being 8-4 up after 5 ends. But thats when the tie turned in Ben's favour, playing an opposing bowl out to score 3 and winning the final end meant they tied the first set 8-8.
Connor and Ben then started the 2nd set strongly, leading 6-2 at 5 ends they knew that keeping the game tight would see them qualify for the World Championships. But the next end Sam King played a running bowl with his last wood that scored 3 shots, putting the pressure on the last end at 6-5. Ben and Connor played a good end though, securing the shot and a place at Potters (8-8, 7-5). The full match can be watched via the link below.
The following weekend saw the qualifiers for the new UK Open event. A packed field of top players headed to Nottingham (a little closer to home) with hope of being the event winner and qualifying for this new event.
Solihull players in action were; Ben Harris, Emily Kernick, Izzie White, Hannah Smith, Kirsty Richards and Tom Holmes.
Ben continued his form with wins over Daniel Richardson (5-5, 6-3), Jacky Henderson (9-0, 5-8, 2-1), Barry Jenkins (7-7, 4-4, 2-1) and Shaun Jones (5-3, 8-1) put him into the semi-finals.
The semi-final line up consisted of Ben Harris, Scott Edwards - 6 times qualifier for the World Championships, Simon Skelton - World Indoor Singles Runner - Up 2019 and Sam Tolchard - Former World Champion of Champions Singles Winner.
Ben's opponent in the semi-final Scott Edwards is no stranger to later stages of big events, but was no match in the first set. Ben taking it comfortably 8-2. Scott fought back in the 2nd set but Ben always looked in control of the match and with a final score of 8-2, 5-5, Ben booked his place in the final.
Awaiting in the final Simon Skelton, whose home club is Nottingham IBC, had also performed very well throughout the day with wins against top class players. Simon started strongly winning the first set 8-2. Ben fought back in the second set 8-3 and forcing a tie break.
Ben played some excellent bowls in the tiebreak, including a perfect running bowl on the first end to secure the win and book his place at the UK Open finals in March 2026.
You can watch the final by following the link below.
Huge congratulations to Ben from everyone at SIBC!
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