Seven countries are in contention for medals as the 2025 World Bowls Junior Indoor Championship gets down to the business end of the tournament.
Three of those could also be on to do the double in the men’s and women’s singles and mixed pairs – Scotland, New Zealand and the hosts Ireland.
A third exciting day of play at the Jim Baker Stadium, home to County Antrim IBC, Northern Ireland, has seen the semi-finalists locked in for this 26th edition of the event.
Thirty-six players from 18 countries have been bidding for world glory and now just four players remain in the two singles disciplines and eight in the mixed pairs.
Co-sanctioned by World Bowls and the International Indoor Bowls Council (IIBC), the World Bowls Junior Indoor Championship, the pinnacle global junior tournament reaches its climax tomorrow.
Let’s take a look at how day three of four unfolded.
SINGLES
Australia’s Joseph Clarke, Briar Atkinson from New Zealand and Abbie Chan, of Hong Kong, China all finished their singles group games with 100 per cent records.
In the men’s event, the sectional tables ended with Angel Gomez topping Group A with four wins out of five bagging 12 points, followed by Wales’ Rhys Colwill in second and Daniel Spratt, Ireland, third.
Scotland’s Stephen Lowrie came out on top in Group A with 12 points from four wins. Myles Ng, of Macau, China and Cameron Horo from New Zealand claimed the next two spots with nine points each.
The aforementioned Clarke clinched Group C with a maximum 15 points and an unblemished record, while two former medallists in this championship, Canada’s Erik Galipeau, a former mixed triples winner in 2016, and Adam McKeown, Ireland 2, mixed pairs winner in 2019, took the next two finishing positions respectively.
In the women’s discipline, Atkinson was the standout player in Group A taking top spot recording wins from all her matches and bagging a full house of points. Recent World Cup bronze medallist Lara Reaney (Ireland 3) finished second with four wins and 12 points, with England 2’s Ellie Johnson third on six points.
Scotland finished their group singles campaign as the best performing country with Leah McCloy stamping her authority on Group B with four wins and 12 points. Ireland 2’s Lorna McMullen and Wales’ Jasmine Staton were the next placed players on 12 and nine points.
Chan meanwhile dominated Group C top scoring with 15 points and five successful games. Australia’s Erin Swatridge and Malaysia’s Nurrin Izzati were her closest challengers finishing with 12 and six points each.
In both disciplines, the top two countries qualified for the quarter-finals with one third place finisher going straight into the final eight with the remaining two going into a play-off.
In those play-offs, the men’s event was an all-Ireland contest with Daniel Spratt (Ireland) and Adam McKeown (Ireland 2) going head-to-head, while in the women’s singles, it was an Wales-England derby with Jasmine Staton facing Ellie Johnson.
McKeown prevailed over Spratt 9-2, 9-2, while Staton was a 10-1, 7-1 winner over Johnston.
In the men’s quarter-finals, Australia defeated Macau, China, New Zealand got the better of the USA, Scotland pipped Ireland 2 on a tiebreak and Canada edged Wales on an extra end tiebreak.
The semi-final line-up is Canada v Scotland and a Trans-Tasman clash with New Zealand against Australia.
The last eight for the women’s saw Scotland clinch victory over Malaysia, New Zealand got passed Ireland, Hong Kong, China finished ahead of Wales, Ireland 3 took the win against Australia.
The semi-finals will see Ireland 3 play Hong Kong, China and Scotland versus New Zealand.
MIXED PAIRS
In the mixed pairs, New Zealand’s Camron Horo and Briar Atkinson were the only combination to finish the sectional play without losing a game.
They took the honours in Section 4 with the hosts, Ireland’s Daniel Spratt and Zoe Stratton in second place.
They both progressed to the quarter-finals along with the other two top finishers in the other three groups.
They were Section 1 winners Scotland’s Stephen Lowrie and Leah McCloy and second placed Malaysia brother and sister Muhammad Izraf and Nurin Izzati; Section 2 champions England’s Sam Stocker and Millie Tuck who edged the USA’s Angel Gomez and Cathrin Elly Le Messurier, and Section 3 victors Australia’s Joseph Clarke and Erin Swatridge who pipped Wales’ Rhys Colwill and Jasmine Staton.
The quarter-finals saw all four matches go to tiebreaks and interestingly all the winners returned clean sheets in those three ends.
New Zealand beat Wales, Malaysia ended England’s hopes, Ireland eliminated defending nation Australia and Scotland beat were victors over the USA.
For a place in the final, Scotland face New Zealand and Malaysia are against Ireland.
Tomorrow (Thursday) is semi-final and finals day with games commencing at 9.30 am GMT.
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Caption: Three players out of 36 remain unbeaten in the singles. From left: Briar Atkinson, of New Zealand, Joseph Clarke from Australia and Hong Kong, China’s Abbie Chan
Report compiled by Ceris Hewlings, World Bowls media officer
