Wiltshire Short Mat Bowling Association
Syd Kent Memorial Trophy Competition
June 18th and July 9th 2017
The title refers to a Memorial Cup kindly put up by Avon County, to be played for annually on a home and away basis. The matches, although taken seriously (as Inter-County matches should be) are all played in a friendly and sporting spirit.
The first half, played at Seend, with the Avon players struggling a little getting used to the vagaries of the Seend floor, resulted in a convincing win for the ‘Moonrakers’ by 28 points to 12, with at least one win for the Wiltshire side in each of the pair of games played by everyone.
Double winners were the Fours of John Sheath, John Baxter and Peter Overton, skipped by Les Kirby, and the Triples team of Pam Baldry, Lyn Woodsford and Les Baldry (skip).
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The return match at Bristol Bowling Centre was a closer affair, with ‘mat on mat’ playing more predictably than at Seend, but the Wiltshire side coming in as winners 23-17.Winners of both their games were Dave Slater/Sue Hamilton/Mike Phillips/Chris Willis; John Corps/Peter Trusler/Charlie Beales/ Les Kirby and Ricky Pyle/Alan Benson/Denise Wiltshire.
The Wiltshire side thus retained the Trophy (as on all previous occasions) by an overall 51 points to 29, with a shot difference of 438 to 331 – a good performance by the Moonrakers.
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ESMBA ICC Premier Knockout Quarter Finals
Wiltshire 6 East Sussex 34
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Wiltshire played East Sussex in the ICC knockout competition on Saturday 18th February at Daventry Indoor Bowls Club.
At the half way point Wiltshire were trailing 10-6, but unfortunately the notorious post lunch slump came into play in the afternoon sessions as there were no more points scored.
The first session ended with draws for Bob Naylor in the singles and Geoff and Dawn Toomer in the pairs.
The second session ended with wins for Sheila Martin, Peter Overton and Les Baldry in the triples and Ann Hart, Sue Hamilton, Ricky Pyle and Ray Nethercott in the fours.
The third session ended in defeat for all the Wiltshire teams.
The fourth session could have gone either way with all four of the Wiltshire teams losing by one shot, this despite a maximum 6 shots being gained in the sixth end by the triple of John Dopson, Maureen Ellis and Les Kirby.
As expected the match was extremely competitive with East Sussex deserving winners.
The final result was Wiltshire 6 points, 158 shots; East Sussex 34 points, 224 shots.
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ESMBA Inter-County Championships - Premier League
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Gloucestershire 29 Wiltshire 11
On Sunday 18th December Wiltshire County team played a strong Gloucester team away at Churchdown, where the home advantage immediately started to take its toll, with one particular carpet proving troublesome for the Wiltshire players who found themselves on that mat, although credit should be given to Anton Rawlins, John Baxter, Dawn and Geoff Toomer , who lost on said mat by a mere 1 shot, and who won their other game by a similar margin.
Star performances were put up by foursome John Dopson, Ricky Pyle, Brian Reynolds and skip Geoff Lane who won both their games, and also John Sheath (Singles), who won his first game 26-7, and having gone down considerably in the first 7 ends of his second game, more than matched his opponent in the remaining 8 ends after becoming used to the mat.
Scores – Gloucester 29 pts., Wilts. 11; Shots 249-173.
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Wiltshire 12 Oxford 28
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Wiltshire played against a very strong Oxford team at home on Sunday 27th November. Although on paper the result looks disappointing-(Wilts.12 pts., Oxford 28, 165 shots to 200), there were some good Wiltshire performances and games that were lost by very small margins – we also only narrowly missed out on some bonus points.
Bob Naylor had a stunning result, winning both his Singles games by good margins (16-12,22-7).
Other winners (1 game out of 2) were Ann Hart/Tom Bright, Pam Baldry/Colin Waldeck/Tony Baldwin, John Dopson/Charlie Beales/Les Kirby and Sheila Martin/Lyn Woodsford/Aidan Wicks/Ray Nethercott.
The team is entered in the ICC Knockout competition, starting on February 5th 2017.
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For all of the latest ESMBA Inter-County Championship Fixtures and Results, click here
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