ENGLISH NATIONAL INDOOR PAIRS CHAMPIONSHIP 2019
This annual bowls championship was held at the Nottingham Indoor Bowls Centre on the 16th and 17th of February. This year 10 Metro bowlers attended the tournament, and travelled from St Pancras on the Friday so they all could have some practice on the green before the tournament started the next morning.
This year 18 teams entered from all over England, as far as Preston and Pennine in the north to Devon and Cornwall in the southwest. Each team had 6 games to play, and after that the 2 top teams had to play in the final on the last session on the Sunday.
Some of the Metro teams did very well with Junette and her partner Peter winning 3 out of 6, Harish with Steve winning 3 out of 6, Eric with Gause winning 5 out of 6 and Maureen with David winning 6 out of 6.
There was only one other team, Alison and Geoff from Cornwall, who had won all their games so they had to play against our Maureen Ryan and David Mears in the final. When the bell rang, after the usual 90 minutes, both teams were level on shots, so to get a winner an extra end had to be played. Maureen put 2 of her bowls within 10 inches, but Alison had the shot 2 inches from the Jack which won the end and so the tournament.
Eric was presented with the shield for being the best B1 bowler of the tournament, and Maureen and David received the runners-up cup. It was a very nice bowls centre, but quite far from the centre of town and our hotel, so quite expensive getting taxis to and from the bowling. All the Metro bowlers enjoyed the weekend and travelled back on the Monday afternoon.
Report by Eric Gallacher bowls organiser
