Despite the deluge of the previous weekend, on Tuesday at the much modernised Greenlands Bowls Club, the sun shone on the righteous, certainly according to the National Director Bob Donnelly, as he played his part in opening the 2018 edition of the Línea Directa Valencian Lawn Bowling Championship.
Following the usual parade of competitors, where a dozen or so clubs were represented, the task of formally opening the event fell to the National Director and Valencian Delegate Bob Donnelly after the three venues, Greenlands, Quesada and Vistabella Bowls Clubs, were handed over to the organising committee by Pedro Garrido, one of the three new Spanish owners of the Greenlands complex.
In his opening address Bob Donnelly was particularly complementary of Línea Directa, who are sponsoring the event for the third year, to the club owners for allowing the use of their facilities and to Suzi Cooper for her efforts in putting the competition together.
The opening ceremony was also attended by the Orihuela Councillor for Tourism and Foreign Residents, Sofia Alvarez, as well as all three new owner of Greenlands, Justo Roch, Mario Revuelta and Pedro, Neil Reardon representing Línea Directa and Anne Huth from Quiron Salud.
The opening bowl of the tournament is usually played by just one of the VIP guests but on this occasion there was a queue of people who were keen to try their hand as Sofia, Anne and the three Greenlands owners tried their hands, with varying degrees of success.
Following the ceremony, after a break for refreshments, the competition got off to a fine start on Wednesday afternoon with the preliminary round of the Mixed Fours both at Greenland’s and at Vistabella.
By Thursday evening the Mixed Fours had reached the semi final stage with some upsets along the way. The semi finalists are an all San Miguel bout of Fred Willshire, Lynn Greenland, Gail Willshire & Noel Davis who will take on Steve Cantley, David Johnson, Cliff & Linda Plaisted. The other semi final is between San Luis Ian Kenyon, Scott Malden, Giuseppe Galelli & Kath Reid who will play the Vistabella team of Gordon Fisher, Stuart Allman, Barbara Brown & Geraldine Fisher. These semi finals will take place on 29th September 10am at Quesada.
After two tough days of bowling in Summer temperatures the triples are also down to semi final stage. The Quesada team of Jason Prokopowycz, Peter Morgan & Carol Lowry will take on Gordon Fisher, Stuart Allman & Geraldine Fisher of Vistabella. While the other semi final will pit San Miguel Steve Cantley, David Johnson & Mary Dyer against San Luis Ian Kenyon, Steve Simmons & Kath Reid. The semi finals of the triples will take place on 29th September at 2pm at Quesada, with 7 of the 12 players also playing in the Mixed Fours in the morning.
Sunday 23rd we start with the Mens & Ladies Pairs – these will be played over 3 days before the Singles events start on Wednesday. With possible rain forecast for Monday & Tuesday the organisers will be keeping fingers crossed.
