BOWLS: Thornfield bowlers win both titles in county youth development event

Rugby Thornfield Indoor Bowl Club again hosted the 2018 Warwickshire Region EBYDS Event. The EBYDS (English Bowling Youth Development Scheme) splits entrants into two categories, juniors (14 or under) and seniors (18 or under). Each category is further split into groups of four for a round robin series of three wood singles. A player earns 10 points for a win and 5 points for a draw, shot difference is calculated in case of ties when it comes to final points. After the singles each player takes part in four different skill challenges, jack casting, line drawing, weighted shot and beating shot wood. The final points are totalled and players sorted in order.

For the Senior section there were two groups of four players. In Group A were Toby King, Alex Warrington, Tom Wheeler and Jack Cooper. With the exception of Toby King all players won two games and lost one so Jack Cooper, Tom Wheeler and Alex Warrington all had 20 points with Toby King scoring 0 points. Group B consisted of Alexia Agrafioti, Paul Warrington, Katherine Bowman and Jordan Ward. Jordan Ward won all of his games, so scored 30 points, Katherine Bowman won two getting 20 points, Paul Warrington won one to get 10 points while Alexia Agrafioti scored 0 points. Alexia Agrafioti finished off a poor day gaining an additional 17 points in the skills section, Jack Cooper gained 42 points, Paul Warrington 47 and Jordan Ward 48. Both Alex Warrington and Tom Wheeler took 50 points, Katherine Bowman 52 and Toby King, who failed to gain any points in the singles, scored an impressive 58 points.

Jordan Ward finished top in the Senior Section with 78 points, 6 points ahead of Katherine Bowman, Tom Wheeler and Alex Warrington both finished with 70 points but Tom took third place with a +5 shot difference compared to +2. 62 points secured Jack Cooper fifth, Toby King sixth purely on his 58 skill points, seventh place was Paul Warrington with 57 points and Alexia Agrafioti’s 17 points saw her finish eighth.

In the Junior Section there were due to be three groups of four and one group of three but one player had to withdraw due to illness leaving two groups with just three players, these groups played only two game but were awarded an extra 5 points for the missing game.

In Group C Rhiana Russell won both of her games, Isabelle Pymm won one and lost one while Ailish Sheehan lost both. However because of being a player down all players were awarded and extra 5 points, giving Rhiana 25, Isabelle 15 and Ailish 5.

Group D was the other group with three players so all players gained an additional 5 points, Alfie Knight won both games to gain 25 points, Grace Wade won one to gain 15 points while Edward Higham lost both games to finish with 5 points.

Ellie Marie Hamblett won all three games in Group E to get 30 points, Alice Atkin won two gaining 20 points, Molly Fowler managed one victory to get 10 points with Tyler King getting 0 points. Group F was won by Jacob Mills (30 points) with Kieran Chambers second (20 points), Maxwell Magee 10 points and Joshua Toon 0 points.

After the Junior skills challenges were completed the final standing, with skills score in brackets, were: Alfie Knight 85 (60), Jacob Mills 76 (46), Alice Atkin 73 (53), Kieran Chambers 71 (51), Ellie Marie Hamblett 70 (40), Rhiana Russell 67 (42), Isabelle Pymm 60 (45) shot difference +0, Grace Wade 60 (45) shot difference -12, Maxwell Magee 46 (36), Molly Fowler 41 (31), Ailish Sheehan 40 (35), Joshua Toon 38 (38), Edward Higham 23 (18) and Tyler King 16 (16).

Jordan Ward and Alfie Knight will progress to the Midlands Regional at Melton & District Indoor Bowls Club in April.