SIBC National Competitions - Update

The first competitive National Competition matches of the season have been played with Solihull players returning a mix of results.

First up - The Denny Cup.

One of the oldest and most prestigeous events in the indoor bowls calendar. This event is played over 4 rinks (16 players) with 2 being at home and 2 away at the opponents club.

Our first round opponents were Welford on Avon, and unfortunately the team went down 72-84.

Good wins from Mark Burdett's 4 away from home (24-14) and Grant Soller's 4 at home (24-14) were not enough to get us over the winning line, the other 2 rinks losing (10-24) & (14-32).

Our team will now play in the Denny Plate with the opponents and date yet to be confirmed

SIBC got their own back on the Welford green the following weekend in the Top Club Competition. Having had an excellent run to the semi finals last season the team hope to go further this year.

With this competition being played over 5 disciplines with points for each rink win there was plenty to play for on the day. First up was Club Singles Champion Ryan Prosser.

After a slow start Ryan pulled back to be 16-15 down, but three good ends for the Welford opponent saw him over the line. Ryan losing 15-21.

Needing to win most of the remaning matches SIBC's Izzie White - fresh from her trip to the World Champion of Champions in Australia - put in a solid performance beating her opponent 21-13. This levelled up the singles ties 2 points a piece and with a positive shot difference of +2.

Our pairing of Lily Adams and Alex Lewis were always in a close game against the Welford pair skipped by Adam Smith. The standard of bowling was very high considering a total shots for both teams of 25 shots in 18 ends. Lily and Alex were just beaten on the last end 12-13. Score now 2-6 to Welford.

The triples team of Dan Holmes, Hannah Smith & Tom Holmes controlled the game against Will Brundles team after the opening ends, coming from 6-3 down at 3 ends to never be behind again winning 16-11. Levelling the scores up at 6-6 and a positive shots difference of +6.

This meant the fours team of Liz Wooding, Michelle Meadowcroft, Callum Mitchell and Malc Follis needed to win their match to secure SIBC's place in the next round. The match was always close, Welford leading 2-5, 5-6 & 6-7 after 3, 6 & 8 ends of the match. This is where the tie turned with our Solihull players scoring 10 unaswered shots to take the lead 16-7 at 13 ends. Welford tried to fight back but could not deny our rink taking the match 18-12 and securing a 10-6 victory for the Solihull team.

The next match will be played at Tamworth on Sunday 9th November from 10am please go along to support the team if you can.

Individual competitions have also been taking place with wins for Emily Kernick and Callum Mitchell in the open pairs (15-5, 14-2). Ryan Prosser in the Men's Champion of Champions (21-17).

Men's Singles - wins for Mark Burdett, Dan Holmes and Matt Grundy

Men's Two Wood Singles - wins for Mike Tandy and Dan Holmes

SIBC Was also strongly represented in the Warwickshire Liberty trophy team Roger Hill, Dan Holmes, Mike Tandy, Malc Follis, Tom Holmes, Jon Palmer, Callum Mitchell & Ben Harris all playing for the 24 man team returning a 118-70 winning score against Oxfordshire. Up next a Home match against Northamptonshire on 10th January.

All in all an impressive start to the season, well done to all players and good luck for your matches coming up in the next few days.