NATIONAL FINALS – Singles, Pairs, Triples & Fours (+ video of Fours SF)
ESMBA National Finals: April 11 – April (14th Melton Mowbray IBC)
SINGLES (Thursday)
Pete Sayer, Lee Toleman, Danny Langdon
In the initial rounds, Pete (9-10, 6-10, 5-15) unfortunately failed to score but Lee (10-5, 11-9, 14-10) and Danny (12-5, 11-5, 11-5) were unbeaten and topped their groups.
In the last 32, Lee beat East Sussex2 (12-3) and Danny crept past Surrey2 by 1 shot, (7-6). Danny then had another close match this time against Cheshire’s No1 and eventual finalist, Matty Worden resulting in an 8-9 defeat. Lee meanwhile had another win against Oxford2 (12-6) and thus reached the Quarter Finals . Here he came up against Greater Manchester’s Peter Roberts who ended Lee’s day with a 11-9 result and who then went on to play Matty in the Final. They had already met in the round robin where Matty had been the winner (9-6) but this time it was Peter where who clinched the title with an 11-6 result.
Great effort all round and Lee now looks forward to the remaining 3 disciplines whilst Danny will feature in 2 more. Good luck all.
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PAIRS (Friday)
Lee Toleman & Callum Malone Lawrence & Chantal Ireland
Having already reached the Semi-Finals in the O55 Pairs in February, the Irelands were now keen to see how they would fare on the bigger stage. A good start with 2 wins in the round robin (9-4, 8-7 and 4-11) took them to second place in their group. Veteran Lee has won the Pairs twice before (2010, 2015) but can he do it again with his young partner, Callum. Three wins in the round robin (12-8, 10-6 and 12-4) and they are up and running into the last 32.
It’s all over folks – Lawrence and Chantal going down 1-18 to Devon3 and Lee and Callum going out 7-12 to Peter and Steven Roberts – the same Peter who ended Lee’s Singles day yesterday. Both pairs will be back tomorrow to have a another go in the Fours.
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FOURS (Saturday)
Bronagh & Lee Toleman, Danny Langdon and Callum Malone
Daniel Agar, Steve Duffin, David Newsome, David Brown
Chris Prendergast, Judith Fearns, Lawrence & Chantal Ireland
For two of our teams the morning proved disappointing.
Daniel and Co. lost their 3 matches 5-7, 4-7 and 3-8 whilst Chris’s rink went down 4-9, 4-18 and 3-11. It’s tough at the top!
Last year the same North Bay Four reached the last 16. They have started well winning their round robin group with 3 wins (7-4, 12-5 and 14-1).
They are on a roll – wins over Oxford1 (11-2), Herts1 (10-1), Shropshire1 (9-7) takes them into the Semi-Final against Dorset1 where their days comes to an end with a narrow 6-7 defeat.
Unlucky chaps, but a great effort to get so far again all the No1 teams.
Watch Bronagh and Co in the Semi Finals (1hr 12m) https://www.facebook.com/share/v/tF9YG4kQY6kddECn/
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TRIPLES (Sunday)
Bronagh & Lee Toleman, Danny Langdon
Steve & Lilly Duffin (sub), James Clark
Can Lee pickup his 6th Triples title…..that was the question. The answer is unfortunately not this year, as a 10-6 win, a 4-7 loss and a 9-9 draw was not enough to take his trio into the knockouts. Steve and Co likewise had to head for home after some close games which ended with 3 losses (8-9, 3-10 and 8-9)
That’s it for 2024 but 2025 will be here sooner than one expects when we can all have another shot at National glory.
