NATIONAL FINALS – Singles, Pairs, Triples & Fours

ESMBA NATIONAL FINALS
April 10 – April 13th @ Melton Mowbray IBC

SINGLES (Thursday) – David Newsome

David is one of our top Singles players and has been crowned National Champion on 2 previous occasions. In 2009 he won U18 Singles title and more recently in 2020 he defeated Matty Worden with the last wood of his match to claim the senior title. So he knows (and we all know) he’s got what it takes.

Today it looked like he may be heading for an early bath having lost 2 of his 3 round robin matches 6-9 and 5-11. However a good win in his third by 15-4 gave him 2nd place in his group to take him through to the last 32. In these he had to fight hard in 3 tough close matches winning 10-8, 8-7 and 8-7 for a chance in the SFinals.  Here he found himself once again up against Cheshire’s No1 – Matty Worden who he had just overcome in the 2020 Final. This time it was Matty’s turn and Dave had to settle for a great run, but on the wrong end of a 7-10 defeat. Matty then went on to beat Alex Kley 9-6 in the Final.

He’ll be back tomorrow – what can he and Danny do?

PAIRS (Friday) – David Newsome and Danny Langdon

Danny has a good record at the Nationals being a runner up in the Triples in 2020, runner-up in the Singles in 2018 and a Champion in both the Mixed Fours and the Pairs in 2016. Can he and David have further success today?

2 wins from 3 in the round robin (5-13, 8-7 and 18-2) took them into the first KO round where another win (10-8) meant they were in the last 16. Here our duo finally met their match against Dorset2 (Sam Harvey and Alex Kley). (Alex is currently world No1 in the SMPT rankings)

 

FOURS (Saturday) – No qualifiers. With only 2 entries, we were unable to run any qualifying competition as the minimum entry required by the ESMBA is 4.

 

TRIPLES (Sunday) – Joseph & Jill Newsome and Rafferty Patrick

Joseph & Jill are no strangers to Nationals finals but this was a first trip to a “senior” finals for 14 year old Rafferty.

Drawn into a tough group against the top qualifiers from West Sussex, Hampshire and Shropshire, they had a great win (16-4) a narrow loss (10-14) and a draw (7-7). They ended with the best shot difference (+8) in the group but with only 3 points they ended in 3rd place and so unluckily just missed out on the ability to progress further.

So to all out teams – well done. 2026 now beckons!