IRELAND WIN THRILLER

This was one of the most exciting climaxes to the International series ever with three teams [Ireland, Wales & England] still in the hunt prior to the final round of matches. The championship was narrowed to two [Ireland & England] going into the final end of the series and a literal one shot victory.

Ireland, this years hosts, sat out the first round of the team event as Wales took on Scotland and England were up against the Isle of Man. Favourites for the event as usual was the home team with Wales and England the two outsiders.

Wales 41 v Scotland 24 
Wales claimed the first two points for the win with a seventeen shot victory over Scotland. Two rinks won while another drew with Scotland picking up only one rink win.

S Williams 11 v R McNeil 5

P Rees 6 v L Moffat 10

A Hudson 17 v J Wood 2

M Davies 7 v J Broatch 7

At this moment in time Scotland and the Isle of Man are way behind the other nations in development with Scotland making little progress over the past few years and are almost taking backward steps. The difficulties the IOM have in competing are down to having a significantly smaller pool of players to choose from. An indication of the progress of the IOM will be from their results over the next few years in the individual events rather than the team event.

 
England 71 v IOM 18

J Frampton 18 v S Maddrell 6

S McAlister 13 v J Kinley 6

D Wiggins 17 v S Gale 1

L Toleman 23 v E Maddocks 5

Ireland 40 v England 31The home side had a tough opening encounter against England and going in cold they were well aware that a good start was essential so that England could not feed off a momentum roll. Stephen McAlister’s rink did their best to boost English confidence with their enthusiastic and vociferous approach. They often sound the trumpet call for England and they took the fight to the Conroy rink scoring five shots without reply over the first three ends. Conroy reduced the arrears to one shot [5-6] after six ends but then lost the remaining ends coming out on the wrong end of a 5-12 scoreline. This was the only serious trouble that the home side encountered as they took control of the overall game by the halfway stage with the rinks of Colm McHugh and in particular Marty Trainor taking significant leads. Trainor kept up the pressure while McHugh was able to restrict a late surge by their opponents.

G Burke 9 v J Frampton 5

G Conroy 5 v S McAlister 12

C McHugh 13 v D Wiggins 10

M Trainor 13 v L Toleman 4

Scotland 34 v Isle of Man 33 
The battle for the wooden spoon was intense with Scotland edging the win by the narrowest of margins.

J Broatch 7 v E Maddocks 4 (only eleven shots scored over the ten ends)

J Wood 5 v S Gale 14 (Gale opened with ten shots in the first three ends)

R McNeil 14 v S Maddrell 6

L Moffat 8 v J Kinley 9

Wales 70 v Isle of Man 10 
Wales produced the biggest win of the event and at the same time set down a marker that they had the firepower to capitalise fully on their opportunities and would be serious contenders.

P Rees 13 v J Kinley 5

M Davies 17 v E Maddocks 3

S Williams 19 v S Maddrell 0

A Hudson 21 v S Gale 2 (a start of five and six respectively on the first two ends set uop this fine win)

Ireland 43 v Scotland 18 
Colm McHugh’s rink may have got off to another slow start but they have a wealth of experience with McHugh at the helm and Edwin Irwin at second. Nothing gets these two excited and their temperaments are matched by Mark O’Looney at lead and David Graham at third. It is a very reserved rink but when the occasion warrants it Colm throws off that persona showing how much playing at this level still means to a man of his calibre. They fought back to post their second win and give the hosts four rink wins. Gerard Conroy who had debutants Eddie Marsden and Paul Reid gained a win to give these two that feeling of belonging and contributing which only the first win in a team event can give. Both men had a very busy two days as they also played in the fours competition.

C McHugh 10 v J Wood 7

M Trainor 8 v J Broatch 3 (another low scoring game)

G Conroy 12 v L Moffat 7

G Burke 13 v R McNeil 1

Wales 34 v England 37 
This was a must win game for England if they were to be in with an outside chance of lifting the title while Wales wanted the win to set up a winner takes all showdown with the hosts in the final round of games. It was a close game but the telling point was the count of seven scored by the McAlister rink although they did lose the last four ends as Wales battled back from this disaster.

A Hudson 5 v D Wiggins 7

M Davies 9 v L Toleman 11 (Davies fought back from a 1-7 deficit after only three ends)

S Williams 12 v J Frampton 7

P Rees 8 v S McAlister 12

Ireland 64 v Isle of Man 18 
Four comprehensive rink wins with McHugh’s foursome again giving their opposition a false sense of security by allowing them to take an early lead and then hitting them with a count of five on the fourth end followed by four shots on the succeeding end to over turn a four nil deficit into a seven shot advantage.

C McHugh 15 v S Gale 8

G Burke 12 v S Maddrell 5

M Trainor 18 v E Maddocks 2

G Conroy 19 v J Kinley 3

At this stage with only one round of games left the hosts had six points and a positive shot difference of eighty, their opponents Wales had four points and a positive shot difference of seventy four while England who had to face Scotland had four points and a positive shot difference of forty seven.

The scenario was simple a win for Ireland and they retained the title. A large win for Wales and they could lift the title. A defeat for Ireland and a huge win for England would give the English their first title since 1992.

England 74 v Scotland 20 
England did what they had to do and won by fifty four shots with S McAlister’s rink setting the pace going into a 23-0 lead including two more counts of seven.

S McAlister 25 v L Moffat 4

J Frampton 9 v R McNeil 8

L Toleman 19 v J Broatch 2

D Wiggins 21 v J Wood 6

By the completion of this game only the home team or England could win the team event as the Ireland v Wales game was very close and insufficient ends remaining for Wales to win by the required twenty eight shots to overhaul England.

Ireland 34 v Wales 33 
The current champions were expected to win but started nervously while Wales maximised their opportunities as M Davies claimed an opening count of five, P Rees a three and S Williams also a three. Fortunately Colm McHugh’s rink broke two trends, the first he lifted a single on the opening end so that Wales would not start with a clean sweep and the second trend was that they did not get off to their usual slow start. Colm comes to the rescue yet again at the most appropriate time. However the homesters trailed by ten shots after only one end. After three ends this lead was reduced to six shots and by the beginning of the seventh end Ireland had a narrow lead of three shots.

Marty Trainor’s rink was under the cosh losing the first four ends to trail by nine shots. They then fought back winning the next five ends to go into the final end only two shots adrift.

McHugh opened a 7-1 advantage after five ends and had maintained a six shot lead going into the final end. Conroy trailed 5-1 after three ends and in a close hard fought game levelled their match on the ninth end. Gary Burke’s rink may have lost the first end but then won five successive ends to go ahead 7-3 however the Welsh skip chopped out a home bowl on the seventh end to claim four shots and level this game. Wales then took singles on the next two ends to claim a two shot advantage going into the final end.

From the mid way point Ireland took a three shot lead and while never extending it into double figures seemed to have control of the game overall. The first game to finish was that involving G Conroy who had never been in front but had just levelled the game on the ninth end. He went to the mat to deliver his final bowl with shot against, he was very fortunate to run through short bowls and finish touching the jack alongside the Welsh bowl (also touching). He immediately held his hand up and apologised to the opposition in a true sporting manner. This sporting attitude was not expressed by an official of the IIBA who was heard to say ‘good bowl Gerard’ despite it being obvious that it was due to good fortune and acknowledged as such by Gerard. Over the years Ireland has set the standard in both quality of play and etiquette of which the IIBA are rightly proud but in this case the mark was over stepped with the official side of the sport letting down the players. Whenever a team dominates for years it is easy to be gracious but a true test of character is when the pressure is intense and the game close and for an official to have stooped to a level often criticised is a sad day for shortmat bowls in this country.

After considerable deliberation the Welsh skip considered the situation too risky and judged in the context of the match that it was better to declare the head as tied and the game drawn 6-6 rather than risk losing one shot with the head more advantageous to Ireland.

Wales claimed a three on ninth end against McHugh, six shots in three ends against Burke and a four in the final end against Trainor as they fought their way back into the lead by two shots with two individual ends to go. At one stage McHugh was four against and Burke three up with only the back ends to play. McHugh had the final bowl of his match at which stage Wales lay one shot, were two shots ahead overall and Stephen Williams had just produced a gem of a delivery to draw shot for Wales with three against. Ireland needed something special and both McHugh and Burke delivered. First Colm executed his bowl with ultimate precision touching the lying Welsh bowl with sufficient weight to spring the jack to claim two shots, any harder and he would have sprung the jack too far, his room for error under the utmost pressure of the occasion was minimal. This levelled the match overall and gave Gary at least an opportunity to win the game. He weighed up the situation and both his choice of shot and execution were immaculate. Instead of the draw he decided to be more direct and to play over the weight tight to the stick and chop out the lying Welsh shot. He could not have played it any better even if he had walked down the mat and placed the bowl in the perfect position. This left the pressure all on the Welsh skip, he concluded that the same shot as his last could draw the shot rather than using weight into the head. In between joking with the crowd and umpire he lost his previous composure and was unable to repeat his previous gem.

It was a fantastic game and a nail biting climax to the competition with elation for the home side and despair for England.

This was an excellent advert as to the excitement generated by shortmat bowls.

M Trainor 7 v M Davies 13

C McHugh 13 v A Hudson 5

G Conroy 6 v P Rees 6

G Burke 8 v S Williams 9

Team	P	W	F	A	S Dif	Pts
Ireland	4	4	181	100	81	8
England	4	3	213	112	101	6
Wales	4	2	178	105	73	4
Scotland	4	1	96	191	-95	2
Isle of Man	4	0	79	239	-160	0