Page 4 - Spring 2019

Page 4_Layout 1 03/04/2019 14:13 Page 1

British Isles Short Mat Championships
British Isles Short Mat Championships
4
Ireland dominate yet again
Ireland dominate yet again
This was the 33rd year of the Premier Championships and this time staged in Wales. A some-
what shorter period for the “A” Team event. No less than 11 titles were on offer, Singles, Pairs,
Triples and Rinks in both Championships, plus the McDermott cup for the best overall team,
which is highly prized along with each title. In the end Ireland won nine of the 11 titles, a pretty
comprehensive result.
Disappointingly, this scribe was unable to attend this year’s championship only the third
one I have ever missed and I even got to play in the early days. A big thank you is due to Sea-
mus Kyne for all the photos used and Wyn Jones for supplying all the scorecards, thus enabling
me to give you the overall picture of a very successful event..
England’s James Trott
England’s James Trott
wins the Premier Singles title
wins the Premier Singles title
Regarded as “the one to win”, James Trott
managed to prevent dominant Ireland from
winning this event.
In his opening round Trott was pushed
somewhat by Scotland’s R. Lenza but final
spurt gave him a 19 - 12 victory. Ireland’s
James Beattie found it hard going against
Wales’ Peter Norman, who snatched a two on
the last end for a 13 all draw.
In the next round the Welshman was re-
soundingly beaten by an in-form Trott who
won 21 - 9. In the third and final round, the
James Trott is presented with his Trophies big-match saw England and Ireland face each
other. A draw was enough for Trott whilst Beat-
tie needed a win and as expected no quarter was given. From leading 6 - 4 Trott found himself
6 - 10 down five ends later. A two and a single got him back to 9 - 10 but another single to Beattie
left him two shots up with two ends to go and all was to play for. In the end Trott managed a sin-
gle and a last end two to snatch a 12 - 11 victory and with it the Singles Championship title.

Singles
Singles

Wales wins the Pairs
The very experienced Welsh Pair of Andrew Evans & Sean Hughes dominated the pairs and
duly collected their reward. Their opening game against Jim Fox & Michael Hand looked a little
closer than the scoreline suggests but they were quite comfortable in their 13 - 11 win, having
led 7 - 1 at one stage. Another comfortable win came in round two when they disposed of Eng-
land’s Mike Clancy & Ben Holbrook 17 - 12.