By Nicholas Truscott

CORNWALL COUNTY SHORT MAT BOWLS ASSOCIATION LATEST

KENSEY Vale duo Paula and Rob D’Agostino were one of four Cornish pairings to compete for the English Short Mat Bowls Association National Over 55s Pairs title at Melton Mowbray Indoor Bowling Club in Leicestershire on Sunday, March 9.

They were drawn in Group Three but didn’t reach the knockout stages, winning one of their three games against Thelma and David Hacker (East Sussex). They lost to finalists Lorraine and Andrew Shorney (Hampshire) 9-7 and Steve Stanton and Richard Nicoll (Dorset) 11-6.

The winning pair did come from the Duchy as Newlyn Trinity’s Mike Dyer and Nigel Nicholls saw off Hampshire’s Lorraine and Andrew Shorney in a tie-break.

After a see-saw contest, Nicholls’ superb jack shot gave them the 9-8 win.

Elsewhere, Duloe duo Martin Boraston and Jon Read lost all three games in Group 11, while John Worton (St Newlyn East and Steve Smith (Holmans) topped Group Eight and progressed to the knockout stages before losing in the first round.

The day before saw Cornwall represented by two teams in the National Mixed Fours at the same venue.

Mark Williams, Eileen Williams, Zoe Barnard-Rowland and Lee Rowland (all Camelford) were drawn in Group Four where they won two matches against Diane Shepherd, Gill Cawrse, George Main and Elliot James (Devon) 7-6 and Dawn Cox, Shirley Cox, Brian Watkins and Tony Vitale (Herefordshire) 6-5.

Despite a 11-3 loss to Lisa Miles, Andrew Miles, Margaret Hare and Alan Hare (Hertfordshire) it was enough to qualify for the knockouts.

But in the first round they were beaten 8-3 by Oxfordshire’s Lisa Williams, Marilyn Davies, Les Woodward and Chris Hasker.

Duloe’s quartet of Chris Page, Caroline Trubshaw, Charlotte Rollings and Alan Trubshaw were unbeaten in Group 11 but lost 9-3 to a Norfolk team at the same stage.