The Costa Del Sol Lawn Bowls Clubs held their annual Winter Championships Competition at Miraflores Bowls Club from 4^th to 16^th April. The event which is the major event held by the Clubs in the bowling calendar was sponsored by Banco Halifax Hispania and Miraflores Bowls Club.

The competition consists of 7 different bowling disciplines, namely Mixed Fours, Men’s & Ladies’ Triples, Men’s & Ladies’ Pairs and Men’s & Ladies Singles events. The scheduling of the matches and the organisation of umpires & markers for the large number of entries was a logistical challenge at best and faced with a poor weather forecast during the Championship it could have been a nightmare!

We always say “The sun always shines at Miraflores” and this pretty much held true until Final’s Day when a downpour flooded the green and interrupted the 2 Triples finals. Our luck held and the green dried sufficiently for all the finals to be completed by the end of the day.

During the course of the Championship there were numerous closely fought and exciting games but with so many disciplines in action it is only really possible to report on the finals, so apologies to any that feel their match was worthy of a mention. One thing that is worth highlighting is that although the finals were dominated by Superbowl (who also had the largest number of entries) virtually all the clubs that entered had representatives at the semi-final and final stages.

As is always the case in competitions of this nature there is the possibility of entrants qualifying for the final in more than one discipline (which proved to be the case again this year), to minimise the potential impact of this the Mixed Fours final was held on Wednesday 14^th April. The finalists consisted of the Superbowl Team of Mike Detheridge, Alan Turner, Eleanor Morgan & Murray Johns playing against the Mijas team of Lynda Hall, Don Smith, Geoff Hall & Doris Mellor. The Superbowl Four quickly established a large lead being 10-0 up after only 4 ends, but Lynda & her team gradually clawed their way back into the match and were only 11-10 down after 13 ends, unfortunately they dropped 7 shots over the next 3 ends enabling Mike & his team to finish comfortable winners 19-12. Overall a close fought exciting encounter which was watched by a large crowd of supporters.

Thursday was taken up with semi-finals at the end of which Davie Hunter, Kate Morris & Mary Detheridge had qualified for 2 finals. This meant that 3 sessions would be necessary on Final’s Day with the first pair of finals, the Triples, due to start at 9.00 a.m.

After overnight rain on the Thursday night it was a relief to see the green playable for Final’s Day early on Friday morning.

The Men’s triples were between Frank Ball, Terry Morgan & Ken Talbot of Lauro Golf BC and Davie Hunter, Dave Townsend & Manuel Batista of Superbowl. The Ladies final was between Shirley Owen, Bridget Gunn & Jan Brown of Superbowl and Kate Morris, Mary Hilton & Amber Dineen of Benalmadena BC. Both final’s were suspended after only one end had been played due to the downpour and resumed after a break of about an hour and a half (with the ladies moving to a different rink which was more playable)

In the Men’s final, the Lauro team really struggled in the heavy conditions and Davie’s team had established a commanding 17-7 lead after the 10^th end. Once again we saw a dramatic fight back with excellent bowling on both sides that saw Frank and his team reach 17-19 after the 17^th end setting up a tense final end. At one point they were holding the 2 shots they needed to force an extra end but Davie came in to take shot and the match 20-17.

In the Ladies final, the Superbowl triple took an early lead but this time the Benalmadena team fought back before there was too much of a gap and tool the lead 8-7 after the 7^th end. The match was far from over as the lead changed hands on a couple of occasions until the match was all square at 13-13 after 14 ends. Kate and her team held their nerve and ran out 18-16 winners despite dropping 3 shots on the last end.

Pair’s finals were next with the Ladies’ match able to start earlier than the Men’s due to no duplication of players in that section, unlike the Men’s where Davie Hunter was again in action this time paired with John Morgan, so we had to wait until the triples match was finished. The Ladies’ final saw Mary Detheridge & Pat Fisher of Superbowl up against Pam Hatton & Nancy Shaw of Santa Maria. Once again we saw the Superbowl pair take an early lead but the Santa Maria pair following the storyline set in the other finals fought back to take the lead and after the 17^th end were in front by 2 shots. On the 18^th end they were holding shot when Pat Fisher with the last bowl of the match delivered a stunning bowl to pick up the jack and take it to the back of the rink and a 3 shot gain to win the Championship amid loud applause and cheering.

Men’s pairs, Davie & John were up against Graham Rowley & Derek Carr from Miraflores BC. The match followed a similar path to the other finals with Davie & John establishing a 12-1 lead after 6 ends. Yet again we witnessed a fight back and Graham & Derek had pulled back to 13-14 after 14 ends. This time it was Davie & John who needed to hold their nerve with the Miraflores men needing to score 3 on the last end to force an extra end. Holding 2 with one wood left it could have happened but Graham’s last wood turned over a foot short of the Superbowl nearest wood and the match finished 17-16.

And so to the climax of the Championships the Singles finals, the Men’s final was an all Superbowl affair which saw winning fours team mates Alan Turner and Mike Detheridge up against each other. In the Ladies final we had the new pairs champion lead Mary Detheridge against the triples winning skip Kate Morris.

Both finals were closely fought and keenly contested with the men’s match 13-14 at one stage before Alan took advantage of his preferred shorter jacks to run out a 21-14 winner. Meanwhile, the ladies match went right to the wire with Kate eventually winning 21-19, after picking up 4 shots on the penultimate end, to take her second title of the day.

Before presenting the trophies and shields to the finalists in conjunction with sponsors representative Nick Greatrex of Banco Halifax Hispania, Derek Shemmings (President of Miraflores BC) thanked the umpires, the markers, the players and the large group of supporters for their contribution to an excellent tournament which had been played throughout in an excellent spirit. In addition to the trophies, the Ladies received a pot plant and the Men a bottle of Rioja.

Following the presentations Pam Shemmings drew the tickets for the Banco Halifax Hispania prize draw and the winners were Lennie Dineen for the cava and Lynda Hall for the Rioja and glasses.