2024 Imagine Cruising World Indoor Bowls Championship – Day Two Recap
Day two at the 2024 Imagine Cruising World Indoor Bowls Championships at Potters Resorts, Hopton-on-Sea, saw the first seeds topple at the hands of Irish qualifiers in the open pairs. Let’s take a look at the action from the five games on the portable rink.
DAWES AND CHESTNEY STAY IN THE MIX FOR A THIRD WORLD PAIRS TITLE
Twice former champions Mark Dawes and Jamie Chestney held off the challenge from qualifiers Sara Nicholls and Ross Owen to stay on course for a third World Indoor Pairs title (writes Anne Dunwoodie, World Bowls Tour).
Winners in 2018 and again in 2021, the English duo crashed out in Round One last year to Jamie Walker and Perry Martin 7-2, 7-8, 2-0 but this time round they made no mistakes against the Welsh qualifiers.
It wasn’t a very happy 30th birthday for Ross and his Marketing Manager partner Sara – they started well enough but had no answer for the sustained consistency of Accounting Assistant Dawes and Commonwealth Games gold medallist Chestney, who eased through 9-2, 9-3 to book their spot in Monday’s quarter-finals.
DUNCAN AND WALKER SURVIVE A SCARE
Midlothian duo Ronnie Duncan and Colin Walker were made to battle all the way for a hard earned 4-7, 11-6, 2-0 tie break win over Israeli brothers David and Zvika Hadar in their opening match.
Beaten in the all Scottish final of 2016 by Stewart Anderson and Darren Burnett 10-7, 10-6, the Scottish qualifiers were left reeling in the opening set as the Israeli pairs took a 7-0 lead after five ends – but they bounced back in the second half of the set with four successive singles but that wasn’t enough to see them through and the Israeli’s held on the win the set 7-4.
The Hadar’s kept up the pressure in the second set, scoring a fantastic treble on the opening end, but Systems Test Analyst Duncan and his Sawmill Forman partner dug deep, regrouped and reeled off seven shots across the next four ends to lead the proceedings 7-3.
The Israel brothers – who are both involved in Real Estate – hit back to cut that deficit to 7-6 with two ends of play but unbelievably dropped a full count of four shots to virtually put the set out of reach, with the Scots winning 11-6 and then they heaved a sigh of relief as they came through a tense tie break 2-0 to set up a first round exchange tonight (Sunday) evening (7th January at 7.30pm) against last year’s beaten finalists Jason Greenslade and Michael Stepney.
DEFENDING CHAMPIONS THROUGH
Defending champions Greg Harlow and Nicky Brett steered their way to a quarter final berth in this year’s Imagine Cruising World Indoor Pairs Championship at Potters Resorts ending the hopes of local Norfolk representatives Paul Nicholls and Tim Stone 10-5, 10-5.
By their own admission, Nicholls and Stone unanimously agreed ‘Greg and Nicky thoroughly deserved their win. They played more consistently than we did and were extremely steady”.
Winners in 2014 and 2020 against record holders Paul Foster MBE and Alex Marshall MBE and then last year beating the new partnership of Jason Greenslade and Mike Stepney in the title race, Harlow and Brett now take on twice former winners Mark Dawes and Jamie Chestney in the first match of the day on Monday morning 8th at 9.30am.
That victory now opens the door for them to potentially pick up the title for an amazing fourth time, should they safely navigate what will be a further three rounds so their quarter final match against Dawes and Chestney now has significant importance for both pairings and should be blockbuster – and not to be missed.
BELFAST DUO GRAB VICTORY FROM THE JAWS OF DEFEAT
Belfast qualifiers Mark McPeak and Stuart Bennett (pictured) upset the apple cart as they went head to head in their second match of the event, this time against Top 16 players Mervyn King and David Gourlay MBE in their first round match.
Both Civil Servants, the Irish pairing started slowly and trailed 9-3 after six ends of the best of nine end set format, however they raised the bar a bit and despite recovering and scoring a 1, 3 and 1 on the run home they narrowly missed out 9-8.
The second set saw them count on five of the nine ends to win 7-4, square the game at one set all and push the match to a best of three end tie break.
King and Gourlay took first blood and looked to be heading to a quarter final berth, holding match lie on the second end, however a perfect connection gave the Irish lads a lease of life and they went on to add the ‘winner take all’ deciding end to move through to a last eight spot on Monday morning.
SCOTS ANDERSON AND BURNETT ON FIRE
England’s Ian Catchpole and Aaron Johnston were left wondering that they needed to do to score a count against Scotland’s Stewart Anderson and Darren Burnett in their first round clash after losing out 12-0, 10-4 to the twice former champions.
Anderson and Burnett were on fire, putting on a show of high quality, inch perfect, precision bowls throughout a match that lasted just over an hour.
It must have been soul destroying for the English duo who did not perform badly and would have been on the plus side against a lot of other pairings, but it was one way traffic for the Scots as they delivered a master class of draw bowling over the two sets.
Both Johnston and Catchpole agreed, shaking their heads in disbelief at the standard of the game, highlighting that the Scots were awesome and that they themselves wouldn’t have changed much about their own game.
No doubt the Scots will be aiming to maintain that form when they front up against Ireland’s Mark McPeak and Stuart Bennett in their quarter final clash on Monday (8th January).
FULL RESULTS:
Mark Dawes & Jamie Chestney (Eng) bt Sara Nicholls & Ross Owen (Wales) 9-2, 9-3; Ronnie Duncan & Colin Walker (Sco) bt David & Zvika Harda (Israel) 4-7, 11-6; Nick Brett & Greg Harlow (Eng) bt Paul Nicholls & Tim Stone (Eng) 10-5, 10-5; Mark McPeak & Stuart Bennett (Ire) bt David Gourlay MBE & Mervyn King (Eng) 8-9, 7-4, 2-1; bt Stewart Anderson & Darren Burnett (Scot) bt Ian Catchpole & Aaron Johnston (Eng) 12-0, 10-4.
Bumper crowds are again expected at Potters throughout the championships and World Bowls Tour are delighted to have Imagine Cruising back on board for their second year as the headline sponsor of the event.
Every match will be streamed live on the World Bowls Tour’s Facebook page and YouTube channel at no cost. Important: Please be mindful of fraudulent activity on social media, particularly during the World Indoor Championships. The streaming is available free-of-charge and you should not make any payment or share personal data with anyone promoting live streaming links. Please only watch the live coverage via the official sources.
From Monday 15th to Sunday, January 21, coverage will be available through BBC on BBC 2 and Red Button.
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