England bowler wins player of the year

PLAYER of the year at Earl Shilton’s Kingscroft Bowls Club was an easy choice.

Jamie-Lea Winch had an outstanding season with honour after honour at county, national and international level and capped it by being named by immediate past president Jenny Delahay at the club’s presentation day.

The young bowler won both the county and national two wood singles titles, was runner-up in the Leicestershire four wood event as well as reaching the last 16 in the champion of champions competition in the national finals at Leamington.

A senior international player this year, Jamie-Lea was in the England women’s team which won the international series in Wales and has already been chosen for the 2018 squad. In addition she with Rebecca Wigfield from Northants won the pairs gold medal at the European Championships in Jersey.

However, she was not a lone star in a great all round season for the Kingscroft club.

For the ladies, Sally-Ann Lewis Wall, Nicola Hughes and Jamie-Lea with Mandy Blankley as sub won the county triples, Leanne Blankley and Elizabeth Shipley from the Hinckley club took the county under-25 pairs title while Sally-Ann picked up the secretaries’ and delegates’ salver.

Captain Pam Sutton received the county Top Club trophy on behalf of the club team.

For the men, Joe Dawson had another senior international trial, won the four wood singles in a county hat-trick that saw him partner Jamie-Lea in the mixed pairs and skip Lol Chamberlain, Peter Hobbs and Chris Moore to success in the rinks. Joe and Chris were also runners-up in the pairs.

The men’s squad also won the county club championship Atkins Shield and benevolent fund Wade Cup charity event under the joint captaincy of Tom Clancy and David Orton.

Three of the four club teams in the district triples league dominated the honours. The A team won division two and the knockout cup, the B team topped division one and the D team were runners-up in division three.

Mrs Delahay ended her two years of presidency by naming the club captains’ choice for most improved players, Dawn Bennett for the ladies and Nev Wood for the men.