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Paul Brown – Bowls England Presentation

Disability Bowls England’s Paul Brown had a great night at the Bowls England Annual Dinner/Presentation evening in Coventry on 26th Nov.

Paul was invited by Bowls England to give the toast on behalf of the guests and was given a standing ovation after a powerful and inspirational speech.

BE President Michael Jennings outlined the highlights of his season which included the match played against DBE at Didcott BC and was delighted to announce that money collected at the presidential matches throughout the summer would be given to DBE, his nominated charity. He then proceeded to present Paul with a cheque for £7500.00

Paul Brown receiving cheque from Michael Jennings
Paul Brown receiving cheque from Michael Jennings
Norma Hazzledine, Tony Alcock & Paul Brown
Norma Hazzledine, Tony Alcock & Paul Brown

It was a great night helping raise awareness for disability bowls and Paul enjoyed the company of Bowls England CEO, Tony Allcock MBE, who along with Chair of the International Committee, Norma Hazzledine, presented Paul with flowers to be given to his wife.

Report by Mo Monkton

DBE Masters Singles Championship

Masters Singles – 19th & 20th November 2016

Top bowlers from four different disability bowls groups played in the elite 16-person event. The groups represented were BWBA (for wheelchair bowlers), CPSport (for bowlers with cerebral palsy, strokes and head injury), VIBE (visually impaired) and EALABA (for amputee’s and other disabilities). Each disability group nominates 4 top bowlers, they are then drawn into 4 pools consisting of one bowler from each disability group. They play a round robin in their pool, the winners of each pool determine the semi-finalists.

The previous year’s champion has automatic selection for the following year, in order that they may defend their title, this year it was Bob Love.

Representing

BWBA were;  Simon Wright, George Ridgeon and Steve Bigg

EALABA Bowlers;  John Rogers, Neil Smith, Chris Gray and Mike Robertson.

VIBE Bowlers;  Ron Homer, Sarah Marshall, Liz Ward and Gareth Harwood.

CP Sport Bowlers;  Alastair Domville, Steve Angus, Kieran Rollings and Jonathan Stokes.

The pool play this year produced clear winners, Simon Wright, George Ridgeon, Chris Gray and Bob Love.

The semi-finals saw Bob Love, (Birmingham) take on Simon Wright (Hornsea) in a very well contested game, Bob being the eventual winner, 17 shots to 11.

The other semi-finalists, George Ridgeon (Gloucs) and Chris Gray (Kettering) had a real tussle with George going 8 shots up in four ends. Chris then picked up 10 shots in the next 6 ends, George had a better short spell but then Chris won the last four ends. The eventual score finishing 19 – 13 to Chris, a real ‘see saw’ of a game.

masters-singles-finalist-2016
Masters Singles Finalists
masters-singles-winner-bob-love
Masters Singles Champion – Bob Love

The Final was no disappointment. Both Bob and Chris played really well. Chris put up a good fight but there seems to be no stopping Bob, he came out the winner once again. The final score 21 – 10, Well done Bob!

Congratulations to all of the players for a wonderful display of bowling over the whole weekend.

This year the trophies were presented by Paul Brown, DBE Chairman.

A ‘big thank you’ to the Gedling IBC members who helped over the weekend, they were, as always, brilliant!

Margaret Smith, DBE Sec and tournament organiser.

DBE International Trials – 5th November

The first DBE International Trials were held at Solihull IBC over the weekend 5th/6th November 2016 where 64 players/directors, all competing for a place in the next stage of trials, were put through their paces.

Standards were high and the selectors delighted with the effort and commitment shown by all the attendees.

A number of players and directors have been selected to attend further trials at Gedling IBC on 26th February 2017 after which the squad to represent England at the Home Nations Championships in April will be chosen.

A full list of players/directors to attend on 26th February is attached.

List for 26th February Trial

 

Commonwealth Games Ambassadors – 2018

Disability Bowls England’s Paul Brown along with Bowls England’s Ellen Falkner have been appointed Athlete Ambassadors to support Team England in the lead up to 2018 Commonwealth Games in the Gold Coast, Australia.
 Ambassadors Ellen Faulkner & Paul Brown

Disability Bowls England send their congratulations, are very proud and wish the athletes selected for the Games every success. 

Read more:  The Full Story