Peterborough's Nicky Brett adds national pairs win to Commonwealth gold

Nicky Brett added the national pairs win to Commonwealth gold title this week

Peterborough’s Nicky Brett followed up his gold and bronze medal winning performances at the recent Commonwealth Games by claiming the Bowls England national pairs title at Leamington with Brampton team-mate Lewis Baker.

They were convincing 23-9 winners in the final against Bucks pair Matt Hyde and Andrew Briden, which included two counts of five and one of four.

Earlier in the day they had edged out Warwickshire B 17-14 in the semi-finals which followed wins over Warwickshire A (25-14), Lancashire (15-13), Berks (21-20) and Derbyshire 20-7.

In the triples, which opened the championships, the Brampton trio of Simon Leader, Tom Swannell and Joe Randall defeated Essex 22-10 before going down 13-17 to Herts.

There was also one success for the women’s triple, also from Brampton, with Keira Thurston, replacing her mother Emma who was taken ill on the eve of the match, her grandmother Pat Reynolds and Michelle Coleman, winning 27-14 against Derbyshire before losing 11-20 to Essex.

Northants’ bowlers returned empty handed from the English Bowling Federation national finals at Skegness for the first time since 2017.

They reached just two finals, both in the women’s section, via the Yaxley trio of Hazel Bass, Marlene Osborne and Gill King in the two-bowl triples, and the Ketton duo of Helen Tilley and Elaine Upton in the pairs, but unfortunately both had to be content with the silver medal.

The Yaxley triple went down 9-26 in the final to Cleveland after wins against Durham (20-12) and North Cambs (26-13), while the Ketton pair were edged out 20-22 by Suffolk, having beaten Durham (21-15) and Humberside (20-15).

Northants were represented in four other semi-finals, with Louise Harris (Blackstones) in two of them – the under 25 singles and the under 25 pairs with 12-year-old Ollie Jeapes, having won the title last year with brother Stephen.

Yaxley’s Les Sharp and Gill King, bidding to regain the senior mixed pairs title they won in 2019, dropped a maximum four count on the penultimate end as they went down 12-17 to the eventual winners from Northumberland.

The mixed rink of Paul Dalliday, Michelle Coleman and James Harford (Parkway) also went out in the last four to the eventual champions from Notts.

Out of the 22 competitions squeezed into a four-day programme owing to the loss of the Thursday schedule due to prolonged heavy rain, Northants bowlers fell at the first hurdle in all but nine of them.

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