Congratulations to Weston under Penyard and Herefordshire County player Kate Williams who secured a sthirdsuccessive runner up medal in the Singles discipline at the Ladies British Isles Championships in Belfast.
Whilst a mixed-gender sport from local through to international level, the England Ladies short mat bowls team has grown substantially over recent years, aiming to increase the representation of women at the highest levels of the game. As a result of this growth, the Ladies version of the British Isles Championships was launched three years ago, with some of the very best female players from across England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland competing. As was the case in 2023 and 2024, Ireland were the favourites across the board and even more so on home mats, with several members of the Irish “main” team taking part.
Kate kicked off proceedings with a solid 21-9 victory over Scotland to help settle any opening day nerves that may have been lingering. With Wales next up, she knew that a win was required to set up a match for the title against Ireland’s Rachel Cochrane. In a close game, Kate managed to keep her nose in front throughout, leading 6-4 by end 6 and 11-8 by end 12. A tense final few ends saw Kate keep her composure to take a 15-12 win and level on 4 points with Ireland.
With everything riding on what was effectively a final, a tough challenge lay ahead and that’s exactly what it proved to be against her formidable Irish opponent. The opening ends saw Cochrane display the dominant and clinical performance that is often associated with Irish short mat bowls as she jumped into a 10-0 lead off 6 ends. Despite a battling performance from Kate, Cochrane was relentless in her performance, punishing any mistake from the England Captain to take the singles title 21-7.
A huge congratulations to Kate from all at the HSMBA on a brilliant weekend of bowls. As many England players have found out over the years, beating the Irish, particularly in Ireland, is an incredibly difficult thing to do and taking second place is a fantastic achievement in of itself. Congratulations also to Gloucestershire’s Jo Featherstone and West Midlands’ Emily Weaver who were the only ones to wrestle a title off the Irish with their victory in the pairs.
Kate’s match against Ireland was streamed live via Facebook by the Irish Indoor Bowling Association and can be found via the link below: