Mikey Titcombe wins the 3rd Chawton Park open singles event

Saturday saw the first 32 players from the field of 64. Players travelled from afar to try and get the points they needed to qualify for the top 32 in the ranking list, and we had players already in the top 32 trying to cement there place in it.

A lot of quality games during the days play which ended with 4 winners who would come back for the open draw quarter finals on Sunday. Chawton Park’s own Ashley Nethercliffe, Desborough’s Mark Essex, Carterton’s Craig Morphet and Dale McCarthy were the four qualifying from Saturday.

Sunday started earlier as it was going to be a longer day as we played from 32 down to a winner.

Lots of national title winners from England and Wales were present on Sunday, which meant we were able to watch some cracking bowls throughout and some big hitters were gonna fall early due to the open draw format!

Joining the previous days winners in the quarter finals were: Welsh U25 international Nathan Rees, England international Mikey Titcombe, Swale’s Louis Kenny and England U25 international Finley Williamson (and two time runner up of Chawton open singles) made up the last 8!

Shilly overseeing the “pick your poison” quarter final draw where the players each picked a card to find out who they would play in the quarter finals.

In a rare moment the previous days qualifiers each drew a “warm” qualifier from Sunday’s winners! The four “cold” players unfortunately fell at this hurdle and each walked away with £100.

The semi final draw gave us an U25 international match up of Finley v Rees, Finley bowling an absolute bomb to make a 3 to tie the second set and win the match in their game, Mikey v Louis saw Louis’s run come to an end after playing superb all day, he came up against Mikey who was just getting better and better every bowl he bowled. 2-0 to Mikey, Louis and Nathan earning £200 each for their efforts.

Mikey and Finley was going to be a mouthwatering clash as both had cemented their places in the top 32 , and they did not disappoint the small crowd left in attendance, every bowl was changing the head, and these two showed why they are both in their respective England set ups.

Mikey though, just put relentless pressure on Finley who eventually didn’t have the answers, and ran out winning 2-0.