White Rock bowlers roll into nationals

The club will be represented in ladies’ singles, under-25 singles, men’s pairs and men’s fours at the nationals by virtue of reaching the County Finals.

The County Finals will take place at Preston Bowls Club on Sunday August 4, while the men’s National Finals will be held at Worthing (for the final time) and the ladies’ equivalent at Leamington.

Lorraine Milburn is the ladies’ singles player, while Lee and Martin Heitzman overcame Lancing 30-15 the weekend before last to reach the county men’s pairs final where they will take on Preston duo O. Ovett and E. South.

In the fours, Shaun Godfrey, Trevor Roberts, Nick Wingfield and Glen Newton progressed past Chichester 24-9 in the county semi-finals, and they too will come up against Preston opposition in the final, namely D. Kent, I. Blake, D. Ovett and O. Ovett.

Godfrey, Roberts, Wingfield and Newton will face the unknown quantity of Hampshire in the National Finals, though they may be forced into a last minute reshuffle of the line-up.

“We have no idea about Hampshire but we’ll give it a good go,” Godfrey said. “Trevor’s wife is due to give birth the day of the finals so we have John Blackford on standby as a reserve just in case! But the County Finals is obviously first and it’d be lovely to win that and give us confidence for the following Sunday.”

The county under-25 singles final will be an all-White Rock affair as Colin Nutton goes head-to-head with Martin Heitzman. White Rock are also due to face Chichester at Preston BC tonight (Wednesday) in the county double fours final.