???? ????? ????? ?????? ????????????, ?? – ?? ????l ????, ???????? ?????? ??????? ????, ????????, ???????? – Day three wrap

Sectional play concluded today (Tuesday) in the World Bowls Indoor Championship mixed pairs event at Aberdeen IBC, Scotland.

Emily Kernick (WBS 80) and Dominic McVittie (WBS 104), the English representatives, chalked up success in all their group games to top section one with 12 points.

Section two was won by the Israel/Scotland combination of Boaz Markus and Kim Watt and section three by Wales’ Lauren Gowen (WBS 56), who was celebrating her 22^nd birthday today, and Ross Owen (WBS 23), with both pairings also having four wins out of four and 12 points.

Host nation Scotland stamped its authority on section four with Claire Anderson and Stewart Anderson (WBS No 15) topping the group with a phenomenal record – they didn’t drop a set in the group games amassing 115 shots in for games and conceding only 23.

Australia’s Jack McShane (WBS 3) played one of the best bowls of the tournament to win a tiebreak with partner Kelsey Cottrell (WBS 3), a previous mixed pairs winner in 2023,  against the Sweden/Malaysia duo of Olle Backgren and Nor Farah Ain Abdullah (WBS No 1) to seal their first place in group five, while Cyprus’s Loukas Paraskeva and Soledad Robertson were the winners of group six.

2024 bronze medallists Canada’s Linda Ng and Mike McNorton surprisingly only won one game in their section which was led by Cyprus.

In the mixed pairs, the top two teams in each division qualified for the knockout rounds. Four of the six section winners were randomly drawn straight into the quarter-finals – England, Cyprus, Scotland/Israel and Wales. The remaining two section winners, Scotland and Australia, plus all runners-up from the six sections – Ireland’s Zoe Minish and Andy Kyle, the Netherlands/Scotland pairing of Jan Sinnema and Ariana Mowat, New Zealand’s Tayla Bruce (WBS No 18) and Keanu Darby (WBS No 92), South Africa’s Esme Kruger (WBS No 8), Jason Evans (WBS No 37), Guernsey’s Ian and Alison Merrien MBE (WBS No 23)and Malaysia’s Muhammad Haiqal Bin Azami and Emma Firyana Binti Saroji – were then randomly drawn against each other in a knockout round for the remaining four spots in the last eight.

The mixed pairs playoffs – Scotland v Netherlands/Scotland, Ireland v South Africa, New Zealand v Guernsey and Australia v Malaysia – take place tomorrow (Wednesday) at 5.30 pm BST.

The group stages finish tomorrow (Wednesday) in both singles with knockout action continuing on Thursday and Friday for all three competitions when matches will be streamed through the World Bowls YouTube channels.

The stakes are high for this event which has seen 32 countries from around the world compete – as well as the top prize, a world title in men’s and women’s singles and mixed pairs, the championship is a platinum event on the World Bowls Series calendar with much sought-after ranking points up for grabs, plus the winners of the men’s and women’s singles will also receive an invitation to compete at the World Bowls Tour World Indoor Bowls Championships at Potters Resorts in January 2026.

World Bowls Indoor Championship results can be followed at the World Bowls match centre: Results portal

Live scoring can be found at: Live scoring

For full player list, roll of honour and more event information, see programme book:  Programme

Report compiled by media officer – Ceris Hewlings ceris.hewlings@keypublishing.com