BE Under 18 Singles Event

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Over the weekend Bowls England hosted an Under 18 Singles competition at Oxford & County BC, Oxfordshire. This was an open event, where the first 64 players entered across England (and also a reserved list, in case of dropouts).

The event was open to any gender, so highlighted both girls and boys talents and development.

We had two entries – that was Kacee Sultman (Forest Hall) and Luke Heard (Westerhope).

The play yesterday (Saturday) started with the 64 players divided into three groups of a maximum of 24. Each player playing three matches within their group. At the end of the group stage the competitors will be seeded depending on their performance with those in the top 32 qualifying for the main event, those outside the top 32 will still have a chance of glory, participating in the Under 18 Singles plate competition. Both events concluded today.

Yesterday – Kacee won 2 of her 3 games, and finished in 17th place; and Luke also winning 2 of his 3 games, and finished in 31st position – which for both enabled Kacee and Luke to go through to the main event today (Sunday).

So the last 32 started at 9:30am and our good news continued with Kacee beating Ollie Jeapes (Hunts) 2 – 1. Luke started his game at 10:45am, and scored a great win 1.5 to 0.5 over Hampshire’s Luke Bell, who had a 100% record before this game (winning all 3 on the Saturday).

Last 16 was next, and unfortunately Kacee lost to Ollie Shearing (Middlesex) 2 – 0; But there was better news for Luke, who recorded another great win, beating Somerset’s Lucas Powell 2 – 1.

In the quarter-finals Luke faced Kent’s Daniel Paigent and won 2 sets to nil. This put Luke into the semi-final and unfortunately Luke lost 2 – 0 to Ollie Shearing. The event was actually won by Ollie Shearing defeating defending champion Charlie Beeton (Suffolk) 2 – 1 in the final. Ollie finished top of the leaderboard on day 1 – recording 3 out of 3 wins – with a shots difference of 49 (shots for 57, against only 8).

The above results and performances by both Kacee and Luke are fantastic; Luke getting to the semi-final, so last 4 out of the 64 is a superb achievement. And I am sure we all agree our future is in good hands, as without our youngsters we have nothing.  Well done Kacee and Luke.