The 65-year-old Sussex runner-up outlasted the county champion Ollie Ovett but fell to the 18-year-old Michael Richards from Wiltshire club, Westlecot, in the last 32.

The score was 21-14 and Richards, watched by his girlfriend, engaged an extra gear to pull away from Jamieson when the Pavilion right-hander had pulled back from a deficit of 12-3 to 15-12 and lay three shots in the head to tie the match.

Jamieson said: "I didn't play as well as in my first match but I was holding that three. Then he simply drew shot and I never really got back into it.

"I enjoyed playing here today. I like people watching, with a bit of noise and clapping. Bowls is normally too sedate a game for me.

"It's always disappointing to lose but it's been great to be here, in it, myself, while the yougsters have been taking the honours. I've been in that situation before. It's getting to be a young man's game now at this level. I don't think there's anybody left in it today aged more than 30."

Tears in Northumberland

Richards disposed of Worcester's Richard Hall to book a quarter-final place tomorrow (Friday) against Alan Theobald, the Duston club player from Durham who had numbed Kevin Wall 21-5 to leave the Northumbrian's The Willow club weeping.

Jamieson had performed strongly in the previous round against Oxfordshire's Paul Sharman of Carterton. He scored a four to lead 4-2 and moved 13-5 ahead with a three. On long jacks, Sharman made slight inroads to reach 13-9 until Jamieson, persisting on his backhand, rolled in a full-house coming down the breeze to lead 17-9.

Back the other way, and the bearded Pavilion man trailed the jack twice for a double and 19-9.

Jamieson then dropped three woods short on a seventh-eighths length jack (19-10) but on the next end, down in the head, had help when a short bowl of his own was promoted by Sharman. Jamieson then switched to the forehand to draw shot for 20-10.

It was over on the next end, watched among others by Brian Dunne, the previous day an unlucky losing Over-55s Pairs semi-finalist with Chris Young. Worthing team captain, Dunne reported a number of commiserating and congratulatory phone calls received the previous evening from generous co-bowlers, that he had not expected.

Ovett hit by salvo

Ovett's last-16 draw was tough. He faced evergreen former champion in 1989, 1996 and 2000, and international, John Ottaway, from the strong Norfolk county. Michael Richards had put out the other Norfolk man, Robert Bunting, 21-10, at that same opening hurdle.

Ovett was 8-7 up, then ripped apart by Ottoway's sequence of 2 3 1 3 4 to move within a shot of victory. Ovett hammered away for four more ends but Ottaway found the winning shot for 21-12. Sam Tolchard of Kings, Devon, ended Ottaway's run 21-19 in the last 16 but is in the opposite half of the draw to Richards.

UPDATE:

Tolchard, a 19-year-old in Devon's Middleton Cup semi-finalist team and a player already with the National Mixed Fours title under his belt at these championships, won the Singles on Friday.

Michael Richards, 18, reached the semi-finals with a 21-19 victory over Theobald but lost 21-18 to 2002 Commonwealth Games gold medallist Simon Skelton of Derbyshire club, Stute.

Tolchard, who has been playing bowls since he was five, then outplayed Skelton 21-8 to win the final and qualify as England's representative in the 2009 British Isles Championships.

Tolchard won the Mixed Fours in a team with his sister and then on Saturday he lifted his third title of the Bowls England Championships fortnight. He was in a winning rink as Devon retained the Middleton Cup with a 120-109 victory over Norfolk.

Nottinghamshire (129-114) and Kent (109-98) were the respective beaten semi-finalists.

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