Greechan, who was hoping to retain the women’s title, failed to show the form that had got her through to the knockout stage – she had, after all, scored 62 shots and conceded only 21 in three matches in her round-robin group.Lowery, on the other hand, came close to deposing the defending champion, Mark Casey, a bronzed 21-year- old from Australia, and certainly had the holder worried when he won the first set, 8-3.Casey bounced back to win the second, 8-1, and everything depended on the best-of-three-ends tiebreak, which the Aussie won, 2-0.For Greechan, particularly, standing in the spectators’ gallery watching the women’s final proved to be a slightly painful experience, though she took her defeat in typically sporting manner.’Yes, it’s hard for me to be a spectator, because the memories of last year are still very vivid, but I have another two or three years before I’m too old for the event, and hope to be back next year, wherever it will be,’ she said.The event finished with a resounding double for England, Simon Jones, from Maidenhead winning the men’s title and Claire Spreadbury, a 15-year-old Basingstoke schoolgirl, taking the women’s crown.’I can’t believe it,’ said Spreadbury, who won all three games in her group, then scorched to the title, beating Scotland’s Lynsey Nisbet, Malaysia’s Erdu Firdayu (who had beaten Lindsey Greechan in the quarter finals) and Australia’s Lynsey Armitage.’Throughout the final, I kept on saying to myself, “”Is this really happening to me?”,’ adding: ‘The other players were much more experienced than me, but they were very kind to me.’Taking a 10-0 lead in the final, Spreadbury was held mid-game as Armitage scored nine shots in succession and forced the game into a tiebreak, before Spreadbury won on a sudden death third end.Spectators who heard Jones, who won the men’s title, urging his bowls on – ‘Hurrry…hurry!’ – with a hint of a Scottish twang, would be interested to know that he is the grandson of W D Jones, a legendary Scottish international, who represented Scotland in the 1950s and 1960s.Jones scraped past Welsh hope Jon Tomlinson the quarter-finals, and holder Casey in the semi finals, but was good value for his 10-4, 9-5 final victory over Scotland’s Stuart Cruickshank.Jean Lowery, who keeps the wheels in motion at the impressive Indoor Bowling Stadium, was delighted with the whole event, and believes it was the most successful junior championship ever staged.’Not only was the standard of play of the highest quality, but the spirit of friendship shown by the 32 competitors, who hailed from all over the world, had to be seen to be believed,’ she said.’On Saturday night, when we held a karaoke at the club, they all arrived together, and, without being told to do so, congregated around a central improvised table in the lounge, and had a great time.”We’d love to have the event back here in Jersey,’ she said.
‘The venue is always available, but we’re always looking for ways of helping the World Indoor Bowls Council finance it.’Officials of both the WIBC and the JIBC were full of appreciation of the support given by the main sponsors, Equity Trust (Jersey), and the Island’s own committee of Education, Sport and Culture.It is understood that the WIBC have received a tentative invitation from Malaysia to stage next year’s event in Selangor, near Kuala Lumpur, but they are still waiting for confirmation, and are looking for offers of sponsorship.
