THE THREEWAYS WCGBA INTER-AREA CHAMPIONSHIP 2011.

Yesterday 1^st May, the WCGBA staged this annual contest between our four areas; Gwynedd; Glyndwr; Flintshire and Wrexham at Eirias Park Colwyn Bay.

Traditionally this has been an end of season event, usually held in August. However, this year, to address the issue of the falling interest in the event, particularly from our top players, a decision was taken to move it forward. We were helped by the fact that this year our Senior Men’s squad is in a group of only three and that afforded us a blank Sunday, which we seized on for this Championship.

All four area secretaries met with the WCGBA CEO shortly after the WCGBA AGM and discussed the Championship. They accepted the view that this highly prestigious event, supported by our partners Threeways, deserved better support and the meeting recommenced that to add to the attraction the prize money would also need to be increased. This recommendation was accepted by the WCGBA at a meeting later in March with an increase of 40% agreed upon. Additionally to provide individual players with incentives, a further recommendation to offer prizes of £20 to each of the 3 best aggregates achieved within each area squad and a further £20 for the best overall aggregate posted was accepted.

The day dawned bright and sunny, but with quite a cool easterly wind slightly affecting conditions. Our two gazeboes were difficult to put up and failed to even last the day. The two greens at Eirias Park have by all accounts never been better for good bowling. Cut at 7.00 am that day, they were faster than even Bill Rushden of Eirias Park BC could recall. A great tribute to the hard work of Alun Evans and the staff at Eirias Leisure Centre which contributed to the success of the day. The Eirias Park club too offered a refreshment facility throughout a very long day.

So all we needed were the players and were we not disappointed!!! One player remarked to me “You have the who’s who of Welsh bowling here today”. What matches there were for a good size crowd to admire.

In the opening match Gwynedd had 10 straight victories which along with the aggregate gave then a 12-0 win over Flintshire. Simultaneously Glyndwr, Champions in 2009 and 2010, were gaining a narrow victory over Wrexham at 7-5.

The second round matches brought a decisive win for Gwynedd over Glyndwr at 9-3. Meanwhile Wrexham and Flintshire shared the honours at 6-6.

Finally, Glyndwr battled to another draw with Flintshire at 6-6; whilst Gwynedd swept to victory over Wrexham 10-2.

So overall: Gwynedd gained 31 points out of a possible maximum of 36. Some great performances on such a great day. Glyndwr finished second on 16 points, whilst Wrexham and Flintshire followed closely at 13 and 12 points respectively.

While it would be invidious to pick on any matches on such a great day of bowling, two came to my mind as outstanding. The first was Mark Parry’s defeat of the Welsh Merit champion of 2009 Trevor Heath in the second round of matches. Whilst very late on there was a titanic struggle between John Bailey of Gwynedd and David ‘Rocky’ Jones of Wrexham. Rocky built up a huge lead with excellent play, but at ‘the all but stage’ John showed what a champion he is by getting back to standing with 2 woods on to win the match, only for Rocky, in one of the biggest pressure bowls surely he has faced, to bowl a perfect wood to win it at 21-19.

Incidentally the individual honours brought forward a very interesting group of players. John Bonatti won the honours for Flintshire and Rocky did the same for Wrexham. Lewis Scott won the award for Glyndwr. They were all capped however by Mark Parry of Gwynedd who posted a plus of 35 points for the day. What an achievement in this gathering of stars. Congratulations to all these great competitors.

And massive thanks to all the players involved, to the spectators who supported the event, to the referees, to the Eirias Park club and the Leisure Centre staff, and to all the officials involved. A special thanks to Threeways who allowed us to stage the event.

Can we do the same in 2012???

Ivor Williams CEO WCGBA