2018 Carpet Bowls
International
England v New Zealand
v Norway
This year's Festival at Potters saw the
first ever Carpet Bowls International, a tri-nations event between
the hosts and teams from New Zealand and Norway.
The event took place during the Tuesday
and Wednesday evenings of the Festival and with these games not
finishing until gone 10.30, that meant it was a very long couple
of days bowling for those involved.
Each country provided 2 blocks and each
block would play against each of their opponent team's blocks,
so there would be 2 games each evening.
While Norway were always bound to be the
underdogs, New Zealand put up a formidable team whose 8 players
had won a total of 38 national titles between them and were always
going to be serious contenders.
The teams were as follows:
England 1
Neil Jolly
Paul Daniels
Sally Goodrich
Ally Hobbs
England 2
Michael Laydon
Sue Gilder
Jane Debattista
Martin Campbell |
New Zealand 1
Grant l'Ami
Avon Compton
Gary Low
Teri Anderson
New Zealand 1
Ashley Diamond
Paul Wright
Sheree Holmes
Suzanne Mackie |
Norway 1
Arne Bjerke
Rolf Stubberudlien
Kolbein Kroglund
Finn Andresen
Norway 2
Odd Taiet
Nina Taiet
Khmel Tamara
Trond Bekke |
Tuesday - Session 1
England 1 2-11
New Zealand 1
It was a good start for New Zealand who took control of the game,
winning ends 3 to 8 and never allowing England to gain a foothold
in the game.
England
2 14-3 Norway 2
After a slow start England picked up 9 shots over ends 3,4
and 5 and never looked back after that.
New Zealand 2
8-3 Norway 1
This turned out to be Norway's best match of the event, even
though they still went down. New Zealand had moved into an 8-1
lead after 6 ends, but Norway prevented them from scoring in
the remaining ends.
Tuesday - Session 2
England 2 17-3 Norway 1
Norway 1 were showing themselves to be the pick of their
2 teams as they led after 2 ends. Even at 4 ends they were only
3-2 down, but at that point England put their foot on the gas
and ran away, finishing with a 5 on the last end.
England 1 7-5
New Zealand 2
This was as close a game as you could wish for with the momentum
swinging first one way and then the other. New Zealand led 3-1
but a couple of ends later England were 5-3 up and with 2 ends
to go it was all square. However a couple of shots on the penultimate
end gave England a small buffer and on the last with a wood from
each side resting on the jack England did exactly what was needed
and blocked up to prevent their opponents from scoring.
New Zealand 1 22-2
Norway 2
What really separated the teams here were a couple of big
scoring ends, a 5 on the second and a 7 on the 5th had New Zealand
14-1 ahead after just 5 ends and they finished off with 7 shots
over ends 8 and 9.
Overall that left New Zealand in the overnight
lead, although not by much, both teams had 6 points but the Kiwis
had a 6 shot advantage, while Norway had yet to open their account.
Wednesday - Session 1
England 1 20-0
Norway 2
England knew that they were going to need shots as well as
wins and that's what they did, shutting their opponents out of
the game completely.
New Zealand 1 20-3
Norway 1
While England 1 were kept down to just 3 shots on the closing
3 ends of their game, New Zealand 1 made the most of their final
3 ends to take 9 shots and keep pace with England.
England 2 5-6
New Zealand 2
Very much a game of two halves, New Zealand won the first
5 ends to lead 6-0 and then clung on as England finally started
to score, unfortunately they ran out of ends.
Wednesday - Session 2
England 2 2-9
New Zealand 1
Just as before England were slow to start, New Zealand took
control of the game and 6 ends in were 8-0 ahead and by that
stage there was no way back for England.
New Zealand 15-1
Norway
Again New Zealand won the opening half dozen ends, moving
to an 11-0 lead and were never in trouble.
England 1 12-4
Norway 1
For the best part of the game this was a close affair, 2-2
after 3 ends, and still only 4-2 to England after 5. However
a 4 on end 6 pushed them nicely ahead and pretty much saw them
home.
Overall
With only one game lost over
the two nights the win went to New Zealand who finished up on
14 points, 4 ahead of England, while understandably Norway struggled
against this level of opposition.
It was a well deserved win for the Kiwis
who displayed their class throughout the week and could quite
easily have gone home with every trophy on offer.
Plans are already under way for them to
return with their full squad in 2022 by which time we hope to
have more countries involved to enable us to expand the event.
You can find all the results here.
And Trevor Rayner's footage of the matches
can be viewed here. |