Spotlight on superstars in South Wales

The next two days around Cardiff will reverberate to the excited strains of a bowls community poised to experience the best of the best, when the first week of a two-week festival of international competition reaches its climax.

Over the five days the 2019 Atlantic Championships – featuring twenty-five bowling nations from the European, African and South American theatres at four host clubs around the Welsh capital – Barry Athletic, Dinas Powys, Penarth Windsor and Penylan – has gone through the qualifying stanza in women’s singles and fours, along with men’s pairs and triples.

In the short term the rewards are medals for excellence at this event, while qualification for next year’s world championships in Australia enjoys equal status.

Tomorrow and Thursday will be the stuff of which adventure heroes are made as many of the game’s greatest players strut their stuff – tomorrow’s elimination finals are at Barry Athletic and Dinas Powys, then the gold medal play-offs at Penylan on Thursday.

Spectators at Penalyn this morning enjoyed a teaser of what to expect when two superstars went at it in the flat green game’s version of a cat fight. It was a women’s singles encounter featuring a former Commonwealth Games gold medalist England’s Natalie Chestney, who won in Dehli in 2010; up against Scotland’s Caroline Brown, who has three world championship gold medals to her credit – the indoor singles at Potters in 2007, World Cup singles at Warilla in 2014 and the 2012 world fours in Adelaide.

The quality of bowls was exceptional as Chestney demonstrated the class that elevated her to the dizziest heights. After scores were level at 9-9 at eleven ends, the England star restricted Brown to just three scoring ends for the rest of the match, winning 21-14.

At major international events sectional top finishers graduate immediately to the semi finals, while the next two best finishers are sent to the elimination rounds.

Tomorrow at Dinas Powys, Scotland takes on England and Kenya plays Zimbabwe in women’s fours at 9.30am, with winners to play South Africa and Wales respectively at Barry Athletic at 2.30. Similarly, Malta plays Ireland along with Jersey against Guernsey in men’s pairs at Dinas Powys at 9.30am, with the winners heading to Barry Athletic in the afternoon to take on the mighty England and Scotland teams in the semi finals at 2.30pm.

Conversely, Barry Athletic will host England against Malta and Jersey versus Namibia in the morning men’s triples, with winners pitted against Scotland and South Africa respectively at Dinas Powys in the afternoon.

The blue ribbon women’s singles at Barry will see Natalie Chestney (England) v Colleen Piketh (South Africa) and Cindy Royet (France) v Ruti Gilor (Israel) at 9.30am – the winners playing Lucy Beere (Guernsey) and Caroline Brown (Scotland) respectively at Dinas Powys in the afternoon.

Photo: England’s Natalie Chestney gets one away during her fine win over Scotland’s Caroline Brown in today’s classic encounter at the historic Penylan club.

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2019 Atlantic Bowls Championships, Cardiff, Wales, UK

Day 5:

Women’s singles:

Sec.1: Rd.10: RSA (Colleen Piketh) bt IRE (Courtney Wright) 21-13, BRA (Fernanda Spelta) bt ARG (Inis Jaimez) 21-17, ZIM (Caryn Sinclair) bt ESP (Maggie Holmes) 21-8, GUE (Lucy Beere) bt JER (Chloe Greechan) 21-13, ISR (Ruti Gilor) bt NAM (Bianca Lewis) 19-17. Rd.11: SUI (Larissa Rubin) bt ZIM 21-13, NAM bt ESP 21-20, ISR bt ARG 21-2, GUE bt IRE 21-13, JER bt BRA 21-11.

Final standings: GUERNSEY 27 points +105 shots, RSA 27 +96, ISR 24 +71, ZIM 18 +33, IRE 15 +14, NAM 15 +4, JER 12 -18, SUI 12 -52, ESP 6 -57, BRA 6 -93, ARG 3 -103.

Sec.2: Rd.10: ENG (Natalie Chestney) bt SCO (Caroline Brown) 21-14, IOM (Pam Makin) bt CYP (Hazel Bagshaw) 19-18, NED (Saskia Schaft) bt WAL (Sara Marie Nicholls) 21-19, BOT (Marea Modutlwa) bt FRA (Cindy Royet) 21-12 Rd.11: CYP bt MLT (Sharon Callus) 21-17, ENG bt NED 21-6, SCO bt BOT 21-15, IOM bt TUR forfeit 21-16.

Final standings: SCOTLAND 21 points +78 shots, ENG 21 +62, FRA 18 +42, NED 18 +37, BOT 15 +55, WAL 15 +50, MLT 9 -39, CYP 3 -72, IOM 3 -76, TUR 0 -137.

Women’s fours:

Sec.1: Rd.9: RSA (Jacqui Van Rensburg, Nici Neal, Esmé Kruger, Anneke Snyman) bt SCO (Hannah Smith, Stacey McDougall, Megan Grantham, Claire Johnston) 15-10, NAM (Anjuleen Viljoen, Elzaan De Vries, Amanda Steenkamp, Diana Viljoen) bt NED (Elly Dolieslager, Betty Schiltman, Ineke Nagtegaal, Norma Duin) 22-13, IOM (Marcia Pearson, Karen Slack, Bernice McGreal, Janice Pilling) bt TUR (Havva Konanc, Ceyda Arac, Filiz Adiguzel, Rahsan Akar) 36-4, MLT (Rita Hedges, Rose Rixon, Rebecca Rixon, Connie Rixon) bt GUE (Rose Ogier, Jackie Nicolle, Lyn Small, Gwen De La Mare)21-12.

Final standings: SOUTH AFRICA 22 points +99 shots, SCO 18 +53, KEN 16 +11, NAM 15 +27, GUE 12 -1, MLT 12 -3, NED 9 -24, IOM 3 -54, TUR 0 -108.

Sec.2: Rd.9: WAL (Melanie Thomas, Bethan Russ, Ysie White, Anwen Butten) bt ENG (Jamie-Lea Winch, Rebecca Wigfield, Lorraine Kuhler, Sian Honnor) 16-9, ARG (Sara Jaimez, Celia Nunez, Ana Ramos, Gabriela Villamarin) bt ESP (Debbie Colquhoun, Lynne Eldon, Gillian Atkinson, Jenny Thompson) 15-7, JER (Ethel Southern, Lorraine Bowman, Jean Holmes, Fiona Archibald) bt SUI (Noelle Iseli, Caroline Lehmann, Simone Kunz, Simone Iseli) 17-10, IRE (Ashleigh Rainey, Gemma McClean, Sarah-Jane Curran, Shauna O’Neill) bt ZIM (Allyson Dale, Melanie James, Heather Singleton, Kerry Craven) 13-11.

Final standings: WALES 21 points +74 shots, ENG 19 +72, ZIM 15 +30, JER 15 +24, ISR 12 +27, ARG 12 -27, IRE 10 +10, SUI 3 -96, ESP 0 -114.

Men’s pairs:

Sec.1: Rd.12: RSA (Wayne Rittmuller, Pierre Breitenbach) bt NAM (John Fouche, Cabous Olivier) 20-10, ENG (Steve Mitchinson, Jamie Walker) bt ARG (Rodolfo Muller, Jose Riveros) 29-11, BRA (Joao Correa, Peter Gordon) bt SUI (Thomas Schneiter, Beat Matti) 23-7, TUR (Vuslat Arac, Ozkan Akar) bt ZIM (Elliah Mbulawa, Denis Streak) 14-11, GUE (Matt Solway, Matt Le Ber) bt ESP (Tom Rogers, Graham Cathcart) 22-6. Rd.13: ZIM bt IRE (Aaron Tennant, Mark Wilson) 17-12, TUR bt JAM (Martin Edwards, Mervyn Edwards) 20-12, ENG drew GUE 14-14, NAM bt ESP 24-11, BRZ bt ARG 19-13.

Final standings: ENGLAND 25 points +85 shots, GUE 25 +61, IRE 24 +87, NAM 24 +68, RSA 24 +60, ZIM 18 +23, TUR 16 Sq, ESP 15 -32, BRA 13 -30, ARG 6 -59, JAM 3 -130, SUI 3 -133.

Sec.2: Rd.10: MLT (Mark Malogorski, Brendan Aquilina) drew BOT (John Gaborutwe, Remmy Kebaptse) 17-17, NED (Jan Dolieslager, Frank De Vries) bt CYP (Neal O’Neill, Martin McMillan) 18-12, IOM (Clive McGreal, Mark McGreal) bt KEN (Benson Wambugu, Joseph Kitosi) 21-9, FRA (Virgile Machado, Guillaume Hertzog) bt CZE (Jan Letal, Karel Sturm) 19-12, JER (Derek Boswell, Ross Davis) bt SCO (Paul Foster, Alex Marshall) 16-15, WAL (Ross Owen, Dan Salmon) bt ISR (Daniel Alonim, Zvika Hadar) 20-7. Rd.11: NED drew KEN 16-16, SCO bt ISR 20-12, WAL drew BOT 15-15, JER bt FRA 27-7, CYP bt CZE 28-6, MLT bt IOM 18-13.

Final standings: SCOTLAND 27 points +123 shots, MLT 26 +72, JER 22 +73, WAL 22 +74, BOT 20 +36, ISR 16 -13, KEN 13 +27, NED 13 -6, FRA 10 -64, CYP 3 -164, CZE 0 -226.

Men’s triples:

Sec.1: Rd.10: SCO (Ronnie Duncan, Derek Oliver, Darren Burnett) bt ESP (John Pooley, Brian Manser, Derek Eldon) 24-9, CYP (Bob Manson, Colin Hall, Scott Ferguson) bt ZIM (Myles Hopper, Mike Eaton, Clive Robertson) 18-12, MLT (Peter Tonna, Wes Hedges, Len Callus) bt KEN (David Salmon, Charles Wambugu, Andrew Jones) 19-15, NAM (Piet Appolis, Johan Jacobs, Will Esterhuizen) bt IRE (Adam McKeown, Neil Mulholland, Andrew Kyle) 15-12, FRA (Maxime Faure, David Ducote, Amaury Dumont) bt BRA (Gilberto Gelbrand, Heitor Correa, Keith Rowland) 13-11. Rd.11: NAM bt CZE (Jindrich Svaton, Vitezslav Svaton, Libor Svaton) 29-7, IRE bt SCO 14-12, MLT bt CYP 22-13, BRZ bt ZIM 19-16, ESP bt FRA 25-12.

Final standings: SCOTLAND 27 points +152 shots, NAM 21 +54, MLT 19 +32, IRE 18 +68, CYP 18 +23, FRA 16 -5, ZIM 15 +33, BRA 13 -17, ESP 9 -47, KEN 7 -71, CZE 0 -222.

Sec.2: Rd.10: ARG (Ricardo Rubinat, Jorge Barreto, Raul Pollet) bt SUI (Sven Rubin, Ulrich Hausler, Thomas Walti) 20-11, GUE (Terry Brokenshire, Mick Ogier, Chris Dyer) bt TUR (Huseyin Tukenmez, Ozgur Ozturk, Serkan Akar) 25-10, ENG (Ian Lesley, David Bolt, Sam Tolchard) bt JER (Greg Davis, Scott Ruderham, Malcolm De Sousa) 23-14, RSA (Prince Neluonde, Jason Evans, Billy Radloff) bt ISR (Selwyn Hare, Allan Saitowitz, Danny Slodownik) 18-11. Rd.11: ENG bt WAL (Ben Thomas, Stephen Harris, Jon Tomlinson) 20-13, RSA bt BOT (Ajit Naik, Baven Balendra, Binesh Desai) 15-13, JER bt SUI 31-8, ARG bt GUE 16-10, ISR bt TUR 19-10.

Final standings: SOUTH AFRICA 25 points +67 shots, JER 22 +87, ENG 21 +125, WAL 18 +46, ARG 18 +46, ISR 9 -12, BOT 9 -14, GUE 9 -56, TUR 3 -159, SUI 0 -167.