CCSMBA NEWS RELEASE - 22 February 2015

CORNWALL COUNTY SHORT MAT BOWLING ASSOCIATION

NEWS RELEASE 22 February 2015

Inter County Championship

On Sunday Cornwall's Premier Team travelled to Bristol to face Essex in the Quarter Finals of the ESMBA Inter County Championship.

In the first session Cornwall suffered three defeats with only David Balow & David Studden recording points for Cornwall with a 14-10 win in the Pairs.  The second session saw the points shared.  In the Triples Gerald Fisher, Martin Boraston & Gillian Cawrse won 14-8 and Fours Tom Westlake, Dennis Shorthouse, Neil Gribble & Peter Hore won 10-6.  At the halfway point Cornwall trailed by 6 points to 10.

The third session looked to have sealed the outcome of the match with Cornwall only claiming one win, Nigel Nicholls 14-12 in the Singles.  Essex claimed the Singles and Pairs bonus points by some margin to lead by 20 points to 8, 1 away from securing the match victory.

What followed in the final session was a determined Cornwall effort where all 14 bowlers taking to the mat gave there all to capture all 12 points on offer and force a play off to decide the match.

The first game to finish saw Nicholas Truscott play a pressured last bowl to turn over a lie of 5 shots against to draw shot to win 10-5 in the Triples alongside Ken Horrell and Linda Martin.  Next to finish was the other Triple skipped by Gillian Cawrse who were never in trouble as they eased to a 13-2 win.  With the Triples also taking the bonus points the pressure moved onto the Fours.  A score of 3 on the penultimate end for Richard Brown, Chris Roberts, Kevin Williams and Percy Tripp put them into lead of the same margin which they defended on the final end to win 12-8.  Peter Hore's Four were last to finish taking a comfortable 18-3 win which also ensured the Fours bonus points were on the board.

The efforts of the team in the final session brought the score to 20 points apiece.  The first tie break rule sees the bonus points deducted which left the score 16 apiece and with both counties having won 8 games each a tie break was required to separate the two teams.

Taking the format of three one end Singles games with a draw made to determine playing order.  David Studden lost to Dom Reed in the first mat to finish, Nigel Nicholls won his mat against Anthony Faultly leaving Peter Hore with the deciding mat and under pressure with opponent Barry Hedges holding shot with bowls short of the jack.  With the last bowl Peter attempted to split Barry's two bowls but his weighted shot went past the target leaving Essex to win the play off 2-1.

The afternoon performance from Cornwall showed how far the squad has come under current Team Manager Nigel Nicholls with a strong foundation laid for next years campaign.

The match score card can be found at http://bit.ly/ICCvEssex

ENDS

Nicholas Truscott
Press and Promotions Officer
Cornwall County Short Mat Bowling Association
Tel:    07800 916059
E-mail: cornwallshortmatbowls@gmail.com

Web: www.ccsmba.co.uk

Twitter: www.twitter.com/ccsmba