BIIBC Under 18s Internationals

Tie Break Heartache for Young Welsh Bowlers but a well deserved silver for Wales

The Welsh Indoor Bowls Under 18s Team took part in the British Isles Indoor Bowls Council International Series held a Solihull Indoor Bowls Stadium from Friday the 13^th to Sunday 15^th January.

This prestigious event host teams from Scotland, England, Ireland Wales and the Channel Islands and consists of a series of Singles, Pairs, Triples and Fours matches over a three day period.

The Welsh Team consisted of a mix of youth and experience with the youngest player 12 years of age and the oldest 17 years of age.

In what were exciting and hard fought matches the Welsh Players gave 100% in every match they played but overall it was not to be their tournament. The matches were played over two sets with a one end shoot out for tied matches. Remarkably Wales were involved in 15 shoot out’s over the weekend but could only win 3 losing 12 in a competition of fine margins.

The highlight of the weekend was the performances of Elijah Minett, Lauren Viles, Rhys Day and LLewys Lavelle in the fours competition. They battled their way through the qualifiers on Friday and Saturday to reach the round robin playoff on Sunday morning. They lost their first match against Ireland and then had to face a very strong English Four who had already defeated the Irish earlier in the day. The odds against them winning looked bleak, but an outstanding performance by the four Welsh bowlers saw them beat England 2 sets to 0.

The result of the event went down to shot difference and as a result of their big win over Ireland, England took the Gold Medal, Wales Picked up the Silver Medal with Ireland taking the Bronze.

Director of Bowls, Steve Jackson was delighted with the overall performance of the team and the commitment shown in every match they played. Steve was quoted as saying ‘I am very proud to be associated with this group of young bowlers and look forward to working with them in the future’