On Sunday our Somerset Junior bowlers turned out to play in the Inter County National finals competition at Nottingham Indoor Bowls Club.

The team, consisting of Cameron Bowen (Purnells), Chloe Holmes & Jack Vine (Norwest/Purnells), Lydia Sheldrake (Bristol), Jamie Day (Ilminster), Madi King, subs, Lucas Powell and Zach Broom (Clevedon) along with team manager, Peter Bisset travelled to Nottingham on the Saturday to meet up in the evening for a team get together with all their parents, grandparent, siblings and supporters. We all enjoyed a super evening which ended with our young bowlers playing a great game of tag in the hotel grounds: so not an early night!

After what seemed a particularly short night, due in part to the clocks going forward, they were off to the bowls club for their first game which started at the unearthly hour, for youngsters, of 9am! The competition was the Under 18 Inter County Two Rink Triples Semi final. Having come through the qualifying stages with flying colours they were drawn against Yorkshire for their semi final game. The atmosphere on the green was electric, with both teams playing some amazing bowls but Somerset triumphed, winning the game with a 45 - 20 score line and going through to the final in the afternoon.

They started playing again at 1.30 for another gruelling session against a very strong Suffolk side of older and more experienced bowlers and unfortunately, even though they battled long and hard, they lost with 22 shots to Suffolks 36. After the game, the English Indoor Bowling President, Carol Eichen, presented the team with the runners up trophy and their runners up badges. Overall, it was a very long and exhausting day for our youngsters but they performed well and they were all a credit to Somerset. We have some amazing talent in the junior squad in Somerset and we should all be very proud of them. They certainly belie the traditional idea that lawn bowling is a sport for old people! NH