BOWLS: Chelsea shows class to win national title

Spalding’s Chelsea Tomlin is the national two-bowl ladies singles champion for the first time.

The 25-year-old showed her class by beating teenager Devon Cooper 21-12 in the final at Nottingham.

Tomlin comfortably beat Julie Leake (21-13) and fellow senior international Wendy King (21-12) in the last 16 and quarter-final respectively.

Tomlin opened up an 18-13 lead over Rebecca Moorbey with seemingly one foot in the final.

Moorbey bounced back well to lead 20-18 before Tomlin held herself together to win 21-20.

Given the high standard of the two young ladies, there was nothing to suggest that the final would be a runaway affair.

However, Tomlin started exceptionally well before Cooper came back to only trail by two shots at 14-12.

Tomlin had other ideas, though, and did not allow Cooper to score again.

There was no rest as Tomlin and Lauren Finbow reached the quarter-final of the ladies pairs.

In the last 32, the Spalding duo beat Susan Kearsley and Janice Gower 17-15 to set up a last-16 clash with Denise Latter and Marion Richards.

After a 16-13 win, the meeting with Rebecca Willgress and Katherine Rednall proved to be a game too far for the Spalding girls as they lost 17-9.

In the four-bowl singles, Spalding’s representatives were Tomlin and Matt Whyers.

Tomlin came up against Leake who got her revenge with a 21-19 win.

Whyers had fantastic wins against former men’s world singles champion Andy Thomson MBE (21-14) and current under-25 international Glenn Williams (21-19) before losing to fellow senior international David Bolt 21-9 in the semi-final.

Meanwhile, Stephen Harris was beaten in the men’s two bowl singles quarter-final.

He beat fellow under-25 international Harry Goodwin from Plymouth 21-14 before losing to current senior international and national champion of champions winner Martin Puckett 21-12.

Defending champions Whyers, Graham Smith, Martin Spencer and Mathew Orrey were beaten in the men’s fours semi-final.

Relatively comfortable wins against teams from Victory (20-15) and Angel (20-10) in the last 16 and quarter-final respectively set up a clash against a set skipped by former singles world champion Billy Jackson from Lincoln.

Jackson and his rink were in top form as they won the semi-final 22-15 - ending Spalding’s incredible run of 16 straight wins at national and British Isles level.

Whyers, Spencer and Smith found Thomson in top form as they lost 15-12 in the last 16 of the men’s triples.

Finbow, Danielle Wild, Ruby Hill and Tomlin lost in the ladies fours quarter-final.

In the last 16, they had an impressive 23-6 win against a rink from Blackpool before going out to last year’s finalists from Beccles (18-14).

Other national finals are due to take place at Nottingham from Saturday until April 15.

Spalding’s involvement sees the under-25 double triples team and the final stages of the family pairs.