THE Cornwall County Short Mat Bowls Association squad will gather at Carnmoggas for the final practice before the first match of the season on Sunday, October 1, away to Dorset, writes Nicholas Truscott.

Around 24 bowlers made the trip to Carnmoggas for the County Open day last Sunday.

Also last weekend, three Cornish bowlers travelled to Belfast for the Short Mat Players Tour Irish Open competition.

Nigel Nicholls came away with the best results of the trio, claiming 102 ranking points by reaching the last 32 of the Cup competition.  

Nigel started Saturday with a 9-5 win against Michael Campbell followed by defeat to Colin Deering 5-12.  Saturday afternoon brought a brace of wins against Lawrence Moffat 9-6 and Adrian McCaw 17-2.  

On Sunday morning, Nigel rounded off his group games with a dominant 18-3 win against Aofie Fay which took him to the top of Group 22 with 12 points and +30 shots.

In the Cup, competition Nigel met Dafydd Howell in the Last 64 round, winning 13-5 before losing in the Last 32 round to Andrew Shorney 9-10.  

Nigel climbs two places to eighth in the World Rankings and 32 places to 10th in the Order of Merit standings.

Peter Hore started Saturday well with wins in his opening games against Ivan McClintock 10-8 and James Shaw 10-7.  

In a group of five players, Peter lost his last game on Saturday against Ciaran Green 3-14.

A further defeat on Sunday morning to eventual runner-up Declan McCann 7-12 left Peter second in the Group  18 with six points with a place in the Cup competition.

In the Cup competition, Peter met Christopher Wylie in the Last 64 round losing 5-14, to finish the event with 86 points and a 19-place jump to 37th in the World Rankings and moving up 66 places to 41st in the Order of Merit.

Elise Daniell started Saturday with a defeat to Mark Sproule 5-15 before following up with a win against Michael Hogg 10-2.  

Saturday afternoon saw defeat to Jonathan Payne 3-18 and a win against Andrew Cockcroft 10-8.  

A big win against Ian Ding, 14-1, on Sunday morning left Elise as one of three bowlers on nine points in the group, with the worst short difference of the three placed fourth in Group 10.

In the Plate competition, Elise met Edward Law in the Last 128 round winning 8-7.  In the Last 64 round, Elise lost 3-12 to Daniel Sands to finish the weekend with 39 points, dropping one place in the World Ranking standings to 34th and four places in the Order of Merit to 32nd.

The results of the three finals were: Shield – Sam Rodgers 10-1 Sam Moore; Plate – Joseph Beattie 12-6 Rachel McDonnell; Cup – Gary McNabb 7-6 Declan McCann.

The next SMPT event is in a month’s time, with the Norwegian Open which includes a number of local bowlers in the entry.