Four county titles in one day for Horncastle IBC

Keith Jackman, Mary Johnson, Lee Boucher, Paul Bark and Darren Trapmore with the trophy haul.

For a relatively small club, of circa 210 members, Horncastle IBC has had its greatest success in the Lincolnshire Indoor Bowls Association competitions, where the club was represented in four finals at Lincoln IBC.

In the first competitions of the day, Paul Bark competed in the Men’s Over 60s Singles and Mary Johnson and Keith Jackman in the Mixed Pairs.

Bark had a convincing win against Spalding's Martin Simpson as he led from the start and went on to win the match by 16 shots to 9.

Jackman and Johnson were also on form, and were never behind from the off and went onto win comfortably by 23 shots to 16.

Jackman and Bark then went onto play in the men’s pairs in the second session of the day.

Having had a convincing win in the semis against Lincoln, they then came up against Spalding IBC duo Jordan Philpott and Brian Martin.

This was a close match from the start but with the Horncastle pairing seemingly in control as they won by 18 shots to 16.

The final LIBA finals sessions of the day saw Jackman and Bark, already winners of the two titles, go onto compete in the men’s Rinks Fours, joined by teammates Darren Trapmore and Lee Boucher.

Having beaten a Lincoln pairing in the semis they now came up against Lincoln’s other team of Kevin Rands, Dean Stevenson, Danny Brown and ex-World champion Billy Jackson.

Playing such established opposition this was never going to be an easy match.

The four men played as one, supporting each other throughout the three-and-a-half-hour match.

Once they took the lead at 14 shots to 11 they never looked back and went on to take the match 18 shots to 11.

In the English Bowling Federation (EBF) Lincs champions Jackman and Johnson went on to compete in the national competition’s last 16 at Newark, beated in the first round by Suffolk’s of A. Pulford and S. Plummer.

The club will remain open during the summer months on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays (10am12.30pm) and Wednesday and Saturday evenings (6.30pm-9pm).