Leamington Spa ladies take national crown

This year’s Bowls England National Finals are currently being held at Victoria Park in Leamington. Running from August 17 to September 1, they represent the opportunity for men’s and ladies County Champions from across the entire country, to battle it out to be crowned National Champions in a wide range of different competition formats.

The first competition to be played in this year’s busy schedule was the Women’s Fours, in which Michelle Meadowcroft, Ellie Hamblett, Emily Kernick and Kirsty Richards from Royal Leamington Spa (RLS) Bowling Club, represented Warwickshire, having won the County competition in this discipline the previous weekend.

On the opening morning of the Championships, they beat the champions of Yorkshire (25-13), and then the champions from Bedfordshire in the afternoon (31-3).

In the next round the following day, a 20-12 win against the Essex champions and past winners of the competition in 2021 was followed by a quarter-final against Devon’s champions from Kings BC, who had themselves won the National title in both 2018 and 2019.

However, it was the RLS quartet that took the match by 18 shots to 8 and returned the following morning to win their semi-final with a commanding 30-7 win over the champions from Kent.

Just one hour later, the final saw them face the Somerset champions, a rink from Clevedon BC, skipped by England International and current England Women’s 4-Wood Singles Champion, Stef Branfield.

However, Richards and her team established an early lead and were always in control of the match, easing ahead to a final score of 22-9, to take the title of Bowls England Women’s National Fours Champions – the first time that a rink from RLSBC has ever won the competition and the first time since 1949 that a team representing Warwickshire has won the title.