Cumbria Indoor Bowls Club in Carlisle opens its doors for the first time after Storm Desmond

For many members, it was the end of a long period of inactivity and, in the first week, half of its members called to renew their memberships and the consensus of opinion was the changes within the club were generally well received.

Only four days after the opening, the club played host to two major events when the Professional Bowls Players Association staged its qualifiers for the Scottish Open, which will take place at Perth next month and the International Open, which will be completed at Blackpool in March.

Cumbria Indoor Bowls Club was well represented with no less than nine members taking part. Of those nine, six went through to the second round to be joined by Trevor Taylor who was already through to this stage. Only Kevin Harrison and Daniel Pool went out, and both defeats were on tie breaks, young Pool doing well to take Robert Chisholm all the way.

In the second round, Eleanor Gass went down to Robert Chisholm when just failing to win the second set and Ian Gallagher, who was not fully fit on the day, went out against Graeme Vipond who won 8-8, 8-0. Gavin Taylor and Stuart Irwin both won on tie breaks, while Ben Sherwen won in straight sets and Trevor Taylor won his second set 6-2 against Paul Brown after sharing the first.

In the third round, Ben Sherwen defeated John McCrorie in straight sets and Trevor Taylor beat club mate Stuart Irwin also in straight sets. Gavin Taylor had a good first set to beat Andrew Barker 12-6 but lost the second before taking the tie break 2-0. Graeme Vipond, who had looked far from out of place in this company, lost the first set against Martin Gale but struck back to take the second 9-4 before losing out on the tie break 2-1.

In the quarter-final, Ben Sherwen took the first set against Trevor Taylor but Taylor came back to take the second 8-3 and the tie break 2-0. Gavin Taylor had an excellent 10-1, 6-4 victory over the consistent Brett Arkley. The other two quarter finals were won by Tom Smith and Gary Smith and, in each of the semi-finals, it was Smith v Taylor. In this session, Gavin Taylor who had been in good form, failed to maintain that level of consistency and against an opponent renowned for consistency, he paid the price going down in straight sets. Trevor Taylor had the contender from Erewash to deal with and it proved no easy task. In the early evening as the temperature dropped slightly, bowls were not bending quite as well as they had been and the first set finished 5-5. In the second set, Taylor really turned the screw as he can do when in this frame of mind and he finished well on top at 9-4 to earn his place in the final against Gary Smith.

For the game, Taylor changed his bowls to a set which have a stronger bias and he came right back to his best, and he needed to. Smith has been a very good player for a long time, he skipped for England sixteen years ago and one still cannot fail to be impressed by his level of consistency. With Taylor on song and Smith at his best it was a marvellous game of bowls, truly one of the best I can remember. Nothing was safe and very often it was the player who had the last bowl who emerged with the shot. Smith may have held a slight edge in the drawing stakes but it was only slight, and when it came to the important conversions, Taylor excelled. A last bowl in the second set with four against him turned the situation completely and he picked up two shots, a six shot turn around. Not surprisingly, there were just ten shots scored in the seven ends of the first set Taylor winning it 6-4. The second set was another classic and, as they went into the final end, Smith led 4-3. Both players played moderate bowls with their opening deliveries, they were about eighteen inches away, but after that each player produced superb deliveries. Taylor drew within inches, Smith bettered it with his third. Taylor drew up again, almost perfect but moved the jack an inch too far. Smith drew again and rested in behind his shot bowl which itself was no more than an inch behind the jack. Taylor studied the situation and finally decided on a weighted bowl, though the gap to Smith's bowls was very tight and he had to allow the bowl to bend. He played it perfectly, moved the bowl, the jack ran into the ditch and Taylor’s bowl followed through for shot and as so often in this game the final delivery was the winner.

This was a great game and it was a shame that so few saw it. Smith will still be wondering how he could play so well and lose, he will rarely play better and not get a result.

On Sunday, it was the PBA Qualifier for the International Open, the finals of which take place at Blackpool in March.

Again, there was a good representation of locals though Ian Gallagher's back continued to cause him problems and he had to retire without completing the second set in his game against Ben Sherwen. Daniel Pool again did well to take Gavin Taylor to a tie break, though Taylor did not really look in the same form as on the previous day. Eleanor Gass found Tom Smith too strong and went down in straight sets, while Stuart Irwin came back from losing the first set against Alistair Elliot to take the second and win the tie break. Graeme Vipond again showed how much improvement he has made since coming back to the Carlisle club and defeated John Orr 3-5,5-4,2-0.

In the second round, Stuart Irwin found Jason Parkinson's new woods to hot to handle and went down in straight sets but Gavin Taylor perked up to beat Danny Dennison 10-5, 7-6.

Graeme Vipond continued in good form beating Julie Forrest 4-4, 8-3 but Ben Sherwen went down to Andrew Barker 4-8, 1-8. Kevin Harrison had a great battle with Chris McGready but got home 2-1 in the tie break and after a drawn first set Trevor Taylor won the second easily 8-1 to progress into round three.

Down to the last sixteen but Vipond progressed again when beating Ian McIntosh 4-4, 7-5 but Gavin Taylor and Kevin Harrison both departed in this round. Trevor Taylor continued smoothly on and moved to the last eight with a straight sets win over Charlie Bence. In the quarter finals Vipond began splendidly against John McCrorie and took the first set 7-0 but McCrorie bounced back strongly in the second set and took that 10-1 and followed up by winning the tie break 2-0. Trevor Taylor met Andrew Barker but the anticipated close game never really ensued as Taylor got home 6-3,7-4. John McCrorie won his semi-final 5-5, 8-6 but in the final against Taylor he was always playing second fiddle to a player at the top of his game and Taylor won the final 8-2, 7-1 to earn his place at Blackpool in March.

In winning both qualifiers, he became one of just a handful of players who has managed to go undefeated in twelve consecutive games at this level over just two days. Taylor appeared to have become somewhat disenchanted with bowls over the past eighteen months but on this showing he could once again become a major force at this level.

The weekend was a great success and some concerns that the new greens might not be up to scratch were totally unfounded as there were enthusiastic comments from the vast majority of those taking part. Many thanks to all those who marked and umpired throughout the two days, these events would be very difficult more likely impossible without them.

While on the subject of Cumbria IBC, I can confirm the popular Sunday morning double triples league will be taking place again this year and clubs will be notified of the start date as soon as possible, though it will most probably be mid-October.

Outdoor Bowls

The National Championships at Leamington came to an end last week and ,though Cumbria failed to add to its Men's Senior Pairs triumph, there was another good showing from David Forster who reached the quarter finals of the national singles. In the last eight he did not get off to a great start and trailed 18-8. he did show however how much he has matured by fighting back in sterling fashion and when just 20-19 behind he actually laid game before Andy Walters scored the 21st shot to put Forster out. Not surprisingly in view of his good season his name is included in the international trial squad which was released on Tuesday. There was also good news for Wigton's Lewis Baxter who has now been drafted into the Junior team for the series on September 10th/11th

As the names for the gents squad was announced so too was the ladies squad and it includes Wigton's Carol Baxter and Nicola Bowe.