International Open

Introduction

Back in October a few weeks before one of the highlights in the International calendar the British Isles, I was thinking of running a competition which could have big prize money and entries from several nations. Of course this was just an idea which I shared with Barry Hedges and together we came up with the idea of the International Open Fours & Triples. Within a couple of weeks we had put together the dates, venue and format.

We had both lost our fathers in the last few years who were both bowlers so we decided to name the trophies in their memory. One of the main reasons behind my idea was also the frustration that our sport had not seemed to have progressed in the years that I have played, in fact I think our game is in a bit of a decline. Not just in England but in all home nations. Something was needed to get interest back into the sport from the big names in the game.

I could not have imagined the response we got after releasing the details. Top players from England, Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Belgium & Sweden were entering teams and putting their names to the competition.

International Open Fours

The day started early with teams registering at 8.30 with the skips drawing out their groups. We had 32 teams playing in groups of 4 with the top 2 progressing to the Knock out Stages. There was certainly some interesting draws out of the hat with the so called group of death (group 3) consisting of rinks skipped by Marty Trainor (Ireland), Stephen Williams (Wales), Marc Lancaster (England) & Eddie Curran (Ireland).

Every group contained at least 2 teams full of current and past Internationals. At the knockout stages there were many casualties and some major shocks as current World Fours Champion Raymond Stubbs’s four had not progressed along with Marty Trainor’s, Stephen Williams’s (3 Time World Singles Champion) & Gareth Stanway’s rinks. This still left several sides who had their eye on the prize including 2 time World Champion Lee Toleman’s & 3 time World Champion Colum McHugh’s rink.

Best performance of the last 16 came from the West Midlands rink of Mike Tandy, Keith Alders, Ross & Pete Dunkley who beat the young Hampshire rink skipped by the talented James Bucknall 17-2. At the Quarter Final stage we were guaranteed an English rink in the final as the bottom half was made up of Grant Soller’s (Cheshire), Barry Hedges’s (Essex), Lee Toleman’s (Devon – Shropshire) & Pete Dunkley’s (West Midlands) rinks. The top half had Chris Mann’s (Norfolk), Lawrence Moffat’s (Scotland/Wales), Colum McHugh’s (Ireland) & Martyn Davies’s (Wales) rinks doing battle. Two of the games came down to the last bowl with Chris Mann’s rink beating the aggressive rink skipped by Lawrence Moffat 8-7 and Lee Toleman’s rink squeezing past Pete Dunkley’s rink 9-8. Grant Soller’s rink were always in control against Barry Hedges rink winning 11-1 and Colum McHugh’s rink were ahead from the start against Martyn Davies’s rink and never looked in danger of losing that lead eventually winning 11-4.

The first semi-final saw Chris Mann’s rink that included Debbie Philips, Steve Phillips and David Lamb up against multi National, British & World title holders Liam McHugh, Keith McCullagh, Damien Mcllroy & Colum McHugh. This was a close game up until the 5th end where the Irish quartet scored a 4 followed by a 3 on the next end. Chris Mann’s rink were unable to fight back after this eventually losing 12-5 but they can take great credit on reaching this stage. In the other semi final it was an all English clash with Lee Toleman’s rink of Chris Shakeshaft, Allan Williams & Chris Williams taking on Grant Soller’s rink of Ste Tinsley, Keith Smith & Steve Burrows. This game looked close on paper and it was going that way until Lee’s rink were able to go 13 unanswered scoring 3, 2, 5 & 3 to end the Cheshire rinks progress.

This left the crowd with a mouth watering final with 4 full Internationals on both sides trying to get their hands on the £1400 prize money and the Dave Hedges trophy. The game did not disappoint with some of the best bowls played from both sides. All of the heads were tight with the skips looking to play precision draws, it truly was a game for the purists. It took one bad end from the English rink on the 8th end for Colum’s rink to take the match and the title of International Open Fours Champions 2010.

Plate

There was also a plate competition for the teams who were eliminated from the group stage. Players played for a prize of £240 and it was to be another England versus Ireland contest. One of the favourites for the main fours title Raymond Stubbs’s rink had recaptured their form and eased into the final as did their opponents from Staffordshire skipped by Nick Tideswell. This final was in contrast to the main final with aggression being the tactic employed by both sides with the leads attacking the jack. The Irish rink again came out on top winning 15-4 with some big ends being scored.

International Open Triples

38 teams entered for the John Burgess trophy on Sunday 4th April with six groups of five teams and two groups of four teams with the top two going through in both. Again the draw was not too kind to Stephen Williams’s side having the fours champions from the previous day Colum McHugh in his group.

At the knockout stage we didn’t have too many surprises with all of the favoured sides qualifying. One notable qualifier was the Triple of Bente Dahlgren, Rosa Albrektsson & Tommy Dahlgren (Sweden) who won all of their games in the group. Unfortunately their run came to an end against Barry Hedges side in a close fought match 8-6. Tie of the round was Lee Toleman’s triple against Raymond Stubb’s side who had taken their form from the group stage to beat the English triple 11-6.

At the Quarter Final stage there was four great matches with seven of the sides full of Internationals, the only exception was the triple of Chris Mann who had again battled through with Steve & Debbie Phillips. They were on this occasion unable to reach the semi final going down on an extra end to Ste Tinsley, Keith Smith and Grant Soller who were again in the money following their semi final defeat in the fours. Barry Hedges triple which had Babs Morokutti & Ireland International Keith McCullagh were matched up against Eddie Curran’s triple. The match was very tight with the score being 5-4 to Eddie’s side but on the 9th end Eddie played two great bowls to leave Barry’s side four down and requiring a count of five on the last end which was always going to be an impossible task. Stephen Williams assisted by Luke Haddon & Tom Jones were matched against Kevin Conroy’s triple which had Marty Trainor & Alan Paul backing him up. This was a thrilling match and went down to the last end with the Welsh triple leading by 1. Luke was instructed to ditch the jack but missed with his first bowl and with his 2nd was able to make contact but was sitting too far away to guarantee the shot. Two great bowls from Alan Paul set up a great chance for the Irish triple leaving Stephen Williams in trouble, unfortunately for the Welsh triple Steve was unable to remove both of the Irish bowls leaving Kevin not needing to play his last bowl. The last of the matches in this round had Colum McHugh’s side ease past fellow Irishmen Raymond Stubbs, Edmund Marsden and Gordon Stubbs.

The semi finals started with most people backing Colum McHugh to make it two out of two for the weekend. This did not go to the script with the English triple skipped by Grant Soller producing a fantastic performance racing into an 11-0 lead after 5 ends, there was some resistance from the Irish side who picked up a 3 on the 6th end but this was to be the only score with the English side picking up a 2 and a single to win the match with two ends to spare. In the other semi final Kevin Conroy and his side were producing some top bowls picking up 7 shots unanswered against Eddie Curran’s side. Kevin managed to keep the pressure on only having a slight blip on the 7th end as his triple progressed 11-7.

The final made for great viewing with it being another England versus Ireland contest. It was a vocal occasion with the majority of the Irish sides staying to support their countrymen. The game didn’t start well for Grant with the Irish side picking up a 3 followed by 3 singles to race into a 6-0 lead, this was reduced to 6-4 in the next 2 ends but once again Kevin’s side turned the screw to lead 11-4 on the 8th end. The English side looked down and out until they picked up a big 4 on the 9th end but they would still need a count of 3 to level the score on the last end. This looked like it could happen with Ireland missing 3 running bowls at the jack leaving England holding 4. Kevin then produced a great bowl under extreme pressure to take the shot sitting right on top of the jack. Grant had to produce a wonder bowl with his last but was unable to get more than a single leaving the Irish side jubilant.