Congratulations to the Woolhope team of Steve Crisp, Shirley Cox and Bryan Watkins who made it two years in a row for Herefordshire at the Avon Open Triples, held at Bristol IBC on Sunday 14th October, defeating defending champions Carole Crisp, John Mills & Joe Loveys in a tense all Herefordshire final.
20 teams entered from across Bristol & Avon, Gloucestershire, Llansamlet, North End and Saltford. A strong group stages saw two of the three Herefordshire teams making it through to the “main” cup with the St Martin’s trio of Pete Goulding, Kim Wooden and Phil Ladd missing out on shots to go into the plate.
For St Martin’s a run to the plate Semi Final saw them lose out to the eventual winners of the plate from Saltford in a close contest. Meanwhile in the main, Watkins and co fought through a difficult list of opponents including Llansamlet and Deer Park Archers to make their way into the final. For Loveys’ trio, a win against Ripple before defeating the other Llansamlet team in the semi finals set up an all Herefordshire (and nearly all Woolhope) final.
What promised to be a close game lived up to the billing. The battle of the crisps, both playing at lead, set the tone will all players contributing to some fantastic bowls. An early lead for Watkins’ trio was chased down by their opposition. Needing to overturn an 8-7 deficit, Loveys looked to tap the jack with his final bowl but just overshot it, dragging the jack back to Watkins’ bowl as Steve, Shirley and Bryan took the win and the title.
Congratulations to the Woolhope trio as well as all those who competed in the event!