Today was the next set of Bowls England Regional events and it was time for our U24 women to step up to the plate at a hot, sunny, Dunnington.
Firstly just to clarify, due to the low number of U24 women available within our county, we teamed up with Cumbria and Yorkshire to form the ‘Angels of the North’. With the girls sporting a new kit, they had to face Durham, Lancs and Lincs – with the added challenge of never playing as a team before – in hopes to snatch one of 8 spaces available at the AVIVA National Finals this August.
For those who read the previous post regarding the White Rose, the Amy Rose follows the same format and scoring with a maximum of 24 points up for grabs.
After the second set of games had concluded (games 3+4), it was clear that Durham were on track to win the group getting 18 points from us and then 24 from Lancs. This put us in 3rd place, 2 points behind Lincs, going into the last game.
Thankfully for us – Durham continued in their strong form taking 20 points from Lincs and with the Angels picking up 17 from Lancs we finish the group on 40 points (note the Google form is incorrect on the last pairs game, we won one set and lost one so only 1 point here, not 3).
Final group points:
- Durham – 62
- Angels of the North – 40
- Lincolnshire – 28
- Lancashire – 5
However, all is not lost. As there are only 6 regional events, it means there are TWO runner-up spots available – one in Southey as they had 5 in their group when qualifies were published. The other is across the remaining 5 groups, assuming the scoring is correct on the others, we look to have qualified for that highest runner-up spot! I will update you all once confirmed.
EDIT: Scoring corrections made on Sunday meaning our Angels of the North finished as the 3rd highest runner-up, missing out on the AVIVA National Finals by 4 points. A valiant effort and something to build on for next year!
I’m going to finish with some thanks. To Dunnington for their hospitality, to the umpires and markers for the tireless efforts, to the supporters across all 3 counties for cheering us on, and to the girls for bowling their socks off EVERY game! Lastly I want to thank the rest of the management team, Cressida Fordy (Yorkshire) and Margaret Doherty (Cumbria) for the seamless co-operation and bringing the noise!!
Rachel Cartwright,
Amy Rose Team Manager
