Thursday 26 June 2014

British Isles Bowls Council Championships

This week I am the Chief Official at the B.I.B.C. Championships and Series being held at Leamington Spa.
My role at these championships is to coordinate the umpires and markers making sure they arrive on the correct rinks and greens and making sure they are fed and watered. I also act as the liaison between the governing body and the umpires should any issue arise or any schedule changes occur.

This annual tournament sees the winner of the Home Countries National Championships contest for the titles of British Isles Champions. Players from England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Guernsey and Jersey compete in Fours, Senior Fours, Triples, Pairs, Singles and Junior Singles.

The competition actually started on Wednesday evening with two preliminaries in the Pairs and Senior Fours. In the Pairs, Ireland ran out the winners in a very close game against Jersey. The Senior Fours was a little one sided with Jersey dominated Guernsey all the way through to win 24 shots to 8 shots.

This morning I arrived at the venue for a 9:00am start. All matches were preliminary rounds with 3 singles ties together with a Pairs, 2 Triples and 2 Fours. All games are played to the traditional format of 21 shot singles, 21 end pairs and fours and 18 ends in triples.

Unfortunately this morning we had two sets of bowls rejected having out of date stamps. Thankfully, additional sets of bowls were found and the players could continue in the competition. 

The afternoon session commenced at 2pm and was dominated by Semi-final ties in all disciplines.
The final session of the day commenced at 6pm with 3 singles ties being contested.

Tomorrow is finals day at the championships. Let’s hope the weather does not spoil things.

During the week you can get live score updates and results on the B.I.B.C. Website
The scene during this mornings matches at Leamington Spa


2 comments:

  1. The space looks very tight around the greens for the umpires, let alone the public! How are you managing?

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  2. Hi Nick. It is tight. Thankfully not too heavy on the crowds so far this week but the weekend is going to be a challenge. The National Championships are always a problem and there is very little room for umpires to stand

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