Page 30 - Spring 2014 Revised

Page 30:Layout 1 18/05/2014 17:18 Page 1

CORRECTION - British Isles results
30 CORRECTION - British Isles results
It was pointed out that in the last issue the Triples Table in the British Isles article wasn’t right.
It would appear that the England v Wales match was recorded wrongly and an 11 - 15 defeat should
have read a 15 - 11 win. The photo was of course correct showing England as second but not the
table, which I have corrected here.
I’m not sure whether it was my error or that the card had been given had been written the wrong
way round as sadly I do not have the cards in question. Two cards are issued for each game but they
read the same (in every event), in the heading i.e. both cards read England v Wales, whereas one
should really have read Wales v England, with each team marking the correct card. This has caused
a number of errors in the past. Also, I would point out very strongly indeed that I would rather people
approach me in the same polite manner I would use to them, especially when face to face! I was
previously emailed which I misfiled and was promised another copy of the email but this never arrived.
Nevertheless, the following table should now be right.

ED - after a long search I finally found the original email, which I had misfiled and here it is. I do not
generally censure views if openly expressed but I do reserve the right to reply. However, everyone
is entitled to come back at me.
Knock it if you must but get it right! How disappointed I was to read your report and observa-
tions regarding the individual fours competition at the British Isles in Ireland. The fours bowlers in
question journey started 2 years ago when representing Oxfordshire they came runners up in the
National competition being skipped by 16 year old AJ Brown being narrowly beaten in the final.
The following year he took his team to the final again this time winning his first national title at the
age of 17. No report in the S.M.I. (Ed - but neither you nor anyone else sent me a report, so what
do you expect? Callum Beale’s mom made the effort to contact me after he won this year’s Under
18’s and scraping around I managed to put a report together for the NEXT issue. No-one bothered
to contacted me about AJ.)
The team duly took their place in the line-up for the British Isles Championship. Their first
game was the Welsh team and they came away with a hard fought win 15 - 11 not losing as your
report says. This was followed by a convincing win over Scotland 18 - 10 on maybe the trickiest
mat in the venue.
AJ now at 18 was against one of the strongest Irish fours two of whom already British Isles
champions. Yes they proved just too strong and experienced for the young skip and his team but
the experience he took from the game was immense, so much so that he has been selected to
skip a four in the World Championship in March.
I am disappointed that people like yourself who report on short mat do not seem to notice the
positives in our sport and show your readers it is not all gloom and doom and I am sure what is
being built in England will show itself in future years. I hope you can put the records straight as its
disappointing to be told I thought you were runners up in Ireland, we were but that aint what it says
in the S.M.I bible.
Yours in sport Geoff Cross

(Ed - as a realist, I think that AT THE MOMENT, our sport is NOT in an overall good position and I
make no apologies for this view. We can all think everything is right just looking at one particular
area but I take a much broader view. Generally, the only moans and complaints I seem to get are
about the England team but our sport is not about a handful of England players nor county players,
it is about the 19,000 or so grass roots players who really are the sport of Short Mat Bowls.)