Page 10 - Summer Issue 2018 Final

Worlds 7_Layout 1 27/06/2018 11:40 Page 1

The last “A” game of the day saw Belgium
10
sweep aside Canada 15 - 3. In group “B”
England dropped a two on the opening end
but took the next nine ends to complete a 26
- 2 victory that included two fives Belgium
hammered Sweden finishing with four con-
secutive threes for a 17 - 4 victory.
The big clash between Ireland and
Wales ended in a more than comfortable 19
- 4 win for the Irish.
in the opening round of the second day,
England “A” were pushed hard by the Irish
but managed a 9 - 4 win in a relatively low
scoring game. England “B” meanwhile were
well beaten by the Irish, who won 13 - 4. Bel-
gium “A” sprung another surprise with a 13 -
7 win including taking seven consecutive
Fours Champions
ends in this 10 end game, after conceding a
Alan Jones, Chris Willies, five on the second end. In a game of rela-
Gareth Davies, Dominic Reed
tively inexperienced teams, Canada “A” beat
Norway13 - 4 but Canada “B” lost 18 - 2 to Belgium. Wales “B” duly despatched Norway 17 - 4.
Battle continued through the second day with the shock of Belgium “A” beating England 9 -
8 and Sweden “A” recording a comfortable 12 - 5 win over Ireland. Later in the day England “B”
cruised home against Wales by 18 shots to 6. Play continued to the third day with no more big
surprises. When all the games had been completed one semi-final was an all-England affair and
the other saw Wales Facing Ireland.
This match basically one defining end, with Ireland’s Derick Wilson, Edward Campbell,
Jonathan Wilson & Andrew Leckey scoring a shocking seven on appropriately end seven. The
Welsh foursome of Chris Holder, Aled Edwards, James Styles & Sean Hughes fought really hard
and got back to 9 - 10 but a single to Ireland gave them an 11 - 9 win.
The all-England semi-final was as tough as you would expect but a three to Alan Jones, Do-
minic Reed, Gareth Davis & Chris Willies on the last but one end put them into a great position
with a five shot lead. Lee Toleman, Anthony Fautley, Lawrence Moffet & Paul Pomeroy tried hard
but could only score a single to go down 6 - 10.
Bouncing back from this in the 3rd and 4th place play-off, they took an 8 - 0 lead after three
ends against Wales and basically held this advantage to the end winning 12 - 6. The final as ex-
pected in England v Ireland matches resulted in a great game but in
the end the England team of Alan Jones, Dominic Reed, Gareth Davis
& Chris Willies won 12 - 10, with this being Chris’s second World title
having won the pairs at the previous World Championships.
England Emerged as the top Nation have scored more points
than anyone else.
My summary of the Championships is that, with no disrespect to
the UK Countries, it was great to see two titles going outside the UK
for the very first time. Leaving politics aside as they totally pee me off,
I feel the tournaments organised by the Players Tour helped the coun-
tries outside the UK progress with their playing skills much quicker than
they would have done otherwise.
The Almen’s Dick and Marcus did a great job in sorting the venue
England Manager and sponsors etc.etc., despite being banned from the Swedish Asso-
Brandon Whittaker ciation, which at one point put the event in danger of not being held at
with the Nations Cup
all but that’s another story.