The annual CBBA Championship of Champions was held from the 15th to the 20th April. This year saw the introduction of two additional disciplines, Men’s pairs and Ladies pairs.
The main venue was El Rancho Bowls Club but due to the extra number of games required Greenlands Bowls club was also used for the first two days.
Nineteen of the regions twenty bowls club took part in at least 1 discipline and many of them entered all 7.
The format pits the winners of each clubs internal competitions with their counterparts from the other clubs, guaranteeing a high level of competitive bowling.
Due to the luck of the draw the early rounds saw some high level confrontations and one or two shock results. In the Mixed Rinks a very strong looking San Luis team went out in the first round against La Marina and the Mixed Trips also saw the exit of Javea Green’s trips team to a Country Bowls trio.
The second round of the Ladies Singles paired Greenlands Lynn Greenland with San Miguel’s Sabrina Marks and this produced an epic battle, on El Rancho’s difficult rink eight they reached 20 all only for Lynn to take the victory with a measure that was a little way further from the jack than either of these ladies would normally expect to be.
In the second round of the Men’s singles BBC’s Alex Fisher despatched multiple Spanish Nationals champion Keith Jones, while in the Ladies singles Last year’s Spanish National champion June Jones lost out to Vistabella’s Maggie Furness.
Late Wednesday saw the first of the Semi Finals Javea Green’s Jan and Paul Brown and Ann and Tony McKenna took on Vistabella’s Beryl and Mike Regan and Ann and John Rudkin in the Mixed Rinks, the Javea four proved just too strong in an intriguing game which finally finished at about 8.15 pm.
The second Rinks semi was held on Thursday as were the two Mixed Trips Semi’s. In the Rinks Horadada’s Kath Reid, Brian Guppy, Alan Pugh and Giuseppe Galelli overcame Country Bowls team of Lin and Charlie Watkins, Geoff Paylor and Peter Whitehall, While in the Trips Benitachell’s trio of Yvonne Browne, Mike Parry and Alex Fisher came back from a slow start to beat Monte Mar’s Pauline and Barry Woodfine and Gordon Fisher to set up a final against Bonalba’s Phil and Annette Sykes and Terry Allsop who beat La Siesta’s Bernadette McDonnell, Steve Pond and Mike Kelly.
All the pairs disciplines and the two singles categories were played on Friday, first on were the Men’s and Ladies Pairs, in the Ladies section Finca Guila’s Jean Mulhearn and Mary Cummings beat La Marina’s Barbara Forshaw and Sheila Kirby while El Rancho’s Marianne Holtham and Irene Mangan proved just too strong for Barbara Collins and Margaret Breen from Emerald Isle.
The Men’s pairs saw the very strong San Luis duo of Colin Lindgren and Ian Rogers triumph over La Siesta’s Norman Adcroft and George Richardson, while in the other semi the shape of things to come were beginning to form as once again Javea Green overcame their opposition from La Marina.
La Marina’s Bill Jones who had played in the earlier rounds was unfortunately unavailable and so Len Daniels had to introduce a late substitute Brian Murray which on El Rancho’s fast green was always going to be a big ask especially against Javea’s in form Paul Brown and Tony McKenna.
The second set of semi’s completed the pairs disciplines with the Mixed pairs and once again Tony McKenna was in action this time partnered by his wife Ann and once again the Javea duo were always in control beating La Siesta’s Sheila Chorley and Derek Pickwick. Joining them in the final were Country Bowls team of Lynn and Eric Bishop who put out Mazarron’s Julie Cooper and Dave Green.
The Ladies singles Semi’s produced victories for Lynn Greenland over home favourite Irene Mangan and Janet Parsons of La Marina in a close fought encounter with Maggie Furness. The Men’s semi’s saw a good performance from Mazzaron’s Brian Pigott who overcame the experienced Alex Fisher while in the other Semi Doug Brown of Bonalba proved just too strong for Jason Prokopowycz of Quesada.
Once again in Saturday’s Finals Tony McKenna had to play three games and didn’t he do it well. The Morning sessions were real nail biters in the Mixed rinks Horadada went into the last end one shot ahead but with Javea holding one to at least take it into an extra end Tony calmly drew in with the last wood of the match to give Javea a 1 shot victory, congratulations to Horadada who certainly pushed the Javea four harder than anyone else had managed.
The Mixed Trips had a very similar ending with only one wood remaining it looked as though we were set for a Benitachell victory but with his last wood Terry Allsop trailed the jack to give Bonalba three shots and victory sending the Bonalba supporters into wild excitement.
Session two produced another controlled performance from Tony and partner Paul Brown who despite facing strong opposition from the San Luis Duo they were always in control and took the inaugural title. In the Ladies pairs this honour went to Home team favourites Marianne Holtham and Irene Mangan who held off the challenge from Finca Guila’s pair.
The final session as always included the two Singles finals but once again Tony McKenna was in action this time supported by wife Ann and once again they lead from start to finish to consign Country Bowls Lynn and Eric Bishop to the role of losing finalists. The Ladies Singles was an entertaining tussle between Lynn Greenland and Janet Parsons but Lynn was nearly always in control and took the title.
By Arthur Brown
Photos Carl Eagle
The Men’s singles followed a similar pattern but this time it was Doug Brown who had the upper hand and so Brian Pigott after a great performance to reach the final had to settle for a very nice whiskey tumbler with the CBBA logo on it, the same as all the other losing finalists received. The Winners received an engraved large wine glass all of which were presented by CBBA President John Albutt.
The Singles winners also received a voucher from the Bowls Shop in Los Montesinos for a unique shirt with their name and the CBBA logo on. Thanks go to Greenlands bowls club and in particular to El Rancho bowls club for the excellent work they carried out throughout the week to keep the competitions running smoothly.
Filed under: http://www.theleader.info/article/38753/
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