The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
On Sunday, Sleaford Indoor Bowls Club hosted the Lincolnshire men’s and mixed county semi finals.
Spalding Lightning had representatives in a number of competitions and are now in three county finals.
Graham Smith will play Paul Oke from Sleaford in the singles final, Dominic McVittie continues the defence of his sets singles title and will play Richard Ashton from Lincoln in the final and McVittie will be joined by Jean Patterson in the mixed pairs final.
Also on the county competition scene, the under 18s play offs were played at Louth Indoor Bowls Club on Saturday.
Spalding’s Jack Wells and George Almey got to the semi-final and Wells made it through to the final which will be played on county finals day at Spalding on Saturday, April 22.
On Saturday, Spalding was well represented at the national championships at Nottingham.
In the morning, Spalding Lightning played against Exonia in the under 30s double triples competition.
In a quality match, Spalding Lightning were up against it at the start before scoring ten shots across the two rinks on one end to take control of and in the end won 43-25.
Ollie Jeapes, Chelsea Spencer and McVittie won 20-8 and Ruby Hill, Stephen Harris and Jordan Philpott won 23-17. The win booked their place in the final where they would play Huntingdon.
Before the under 30s final, it was the turn of the ladies in the Atherley Trophy where Lincolnshire played Dorset.
Players from Spalding included Hill and Spencer, plus Jean Patterson, Betty Deaton, Ann Newbury and county president Maisie Belding.
Lincolnshire, ten times winners of the competition, soon made it 11 with a 125-108 final victory.
Dorset went in front late on but Lincolnshire held their nerve to finish the match strongly and lift the title.
Patterson, Deaton, Hill and Spencer played as an all Spalding rink which was top winning rink with a 29-12 win.
Belding was number two in a rink which won 20-16 but Newbury led a rink which lost narrowly 19-23.
It was a proud moment for Belding to lift the trophy.
There was no time to celebrate though for Hill and Spencer, as they were straight back on for their third and final game of the day in the under 30s final against Huntingdon.
Huntingdon were defending champions but Spalding finished the stronger to win by seven shots, 36-29.
Jeapes, Spencer and McVittie won 16-11 and Hill, Harris and Philpott won 20-18. Spalding lifted the title for a third time having last won it back in 2010.
Earlier in the week, Spalding Lightning also had excellent runs in the ladies’ singles and men’s pairs.
In the ladies’ singles, Hill had wins against Katy Baxter from Hornsea, 21-13 and fellow senior international Laura Holden from Clevedon, 21-11, before losing in the semi-final against eventual winner Rebecca McMillan from St Andrews, 12-21.
In the men’s pairs, Andy Dunham and McVittie went one better and lost in the final.
Dunham and McVittie started with a win against Shaun Jones and Tom Holmes from Malvern Hills, 19-7 before beating 2017 champions Lewis Baker and Nicky Brett from Huntingdon, 19-11. In the semi-final, they beat Hornsea’s Jack Bird and Matthew Bell, 19-15. The final was never going to be easy against Devon’s Louis Ridout and Sam Tolchard who lifted the title for the second time.
