Day 1 – Sunday 19th January
Welcome to my first blog of the week at the World Indoor
Bowls Championships at the Potters Leisure Resort.
It was changeover day for us officials with Dan Bluett and
Francis Fletcher, returning home after a busy week whilst myself and Mike
Davies arrived for the final week of the championships.
The first game this morning was between Danny Denison and
Simon Skelton with Mike on the rink marking and I was umpiring. It was an
uneventful game for the officials and I was not called on for any
decisions. Danny finished the match
after a close tie break just pippin Simon at the end.
The match was followed by a Q&A session in the Terrace
bar. These are always an interesting feature as you are never quite sure what
sort of tough questions the panel will end up being asked.
Myself, Richard Maddison, CEO of WBT and Julie Forrest from
Scotland faced a barrage of interesting questions from an interested audience.
After a quick lunch, Bryan and I returned to the rink for a
camera rehearsal for tomorrow’s Mixed Pairs Final. The BBC have rigged their
cameras and we are ready to start live broadcast from Monday. The camera
rehearsal is to help the producers figure out the best cameras to use to cover
the presentation. Us officials usually act as the winner and runner up –
probably the only time we are going to win something this big – that’s why we
are officials and not players.
The two Mixed Pairs Matchplay semi-finals commenced at 2pm.
I marked the first one between David Gourlay and Eleanor Gass and the reigning
champions Paul Foster and Laura Thomas. Again it was an uneventful game for me
and Bryan. Paul and Laura won both sets to progress to the final for the second
consecutive year. The following game was between Greg Harlow and Janice Gower,
Andy Thomson and the talented teenager Kathyrn Rednall. Bryan and I switched
rolls and I was only troubled with a straight forward 2 bowl box measure. It
was a great game which went to the wire but Thomson and Rednall finally
triumphed to meet the reigning champions in the final.
No game this evening so it’s time to relax before dinner and
then maybe a show and a couple of beers.
Back tomorrow with the highlight of the day being the Men’s
Pairs final.
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