County Championship Triples and National Qualifier : Sunday 26th January 2025
A credible eighteen (18) teams entered this years county championship triples which was also a county qualifier for the national finals to be held at Melton Mowbray IBC on Sunday 13th April 2025.
A total of four (4) teams had elected to enter the national qualifier, but as usual in Cambridgeshire both competitions were to be run in conjunction with each other.
Unfortunately one of the teams that entered the national qualifier had to withdraw due to illness and because entrants have to be pre-registered it is not possible to find replacements.
A further player withdrew early on Sunday morning due to vertigo and that place was filled with guest players.
The 17 teams were divided by way of open draw into 1 group of 5 and 3 groups of 4.
We all saw some very good shots and tactical bowling and after 6 consecutive rounds the top two teams in each group progressed into the quarter finals.
Somewhat surprisingly 2 of the teams going through into the quarter finals won only one of their group games and went through on shot difference.
The quarter finals and results for the skips were as follows:-
(WG A) Chris West (8) v (RU G D) Colin Buck (7)
(WG B ) Brian Beecham (4) v (RU G C) John Boddye (9)
(WG C) Liz Mitchell (6) V ( RU G B) Barry Fox (4)
(WG D) Barry Stanford (3) v (RU G A) Billy Chapman (13)
In semi-final 1 on Mat 2 Liz Mitchell, Sandra Smith & Janet Russell beat Chris & Kellie West & Peter Griffiths 6 shots to 3.
In the other semi final on Mat 3 Billy Chapman, Jayne Thorpe & Rob Bonello beat Lynn & John Boddye & Dawn Fincham 13 shots to 6.
The final was won by Billy Chapman’s team against Liz Mitchell’s team 12 shots to 5.
Because we only had 3 teams in the national qualifier it is highly unlikely that the ESMBA will now allocate Cambridgeshire a team place but we have at least applied.
The chairman Mr Barry Fox presented the prizes to the top four team placings.
A big thank you to those members who helped to lay out the equipment in the morning and some were good enough to stay behind to help clear up. Your help is much appreciated.
A special thanks to Roly Fincham for carrying out the umpiring duties in what turned out to be a long day.
Following a very successful raffle and all deductions a total of £214.30 will be credited to association funds from this event combined with the under 18 four wood singles which was run on the same day. Please see our separate report regarding this.
We also suspect of course that the ESMBA will not cash our cheque for national qualification entries as we will be excluded from the event due to circumstances beyond our control.
The upside is that the CSMBA will be a further £36.00 better off but the CSMBA would have course preferred to have a Cambridgeshire team compete in the nationals within this discipline.
David Wilcox
CSMBA Interim Competitions Secretary