National Championships 2023 – County Semi-finals – Sunday 16 July
This year, as a result of additional entries for the national championships from Oxfordshire , both finalists qualify for the national finals at Leamington Spa in August. This created extra spice to what was always going to be hotly contested semi-finals. The Sunday results were as follows:
2 Wood Singles – Ian Henwood (Head) beat Ryan Full (Cart) by 18 – 9.
4 Wood Singles – Paul Mabbutt (Head) got off to an 8-0 start after 4 ends and left Paul Sharman (Cart) a lot to do to catch up. Paul won overall by 21- 16.
Two pairs clashed from Headington for one of the semi-finals, with Jon Philpott and Howard Watts beating Brandon and Jason King by 22-10 shots.
In the second pairs match, two West Witney pairs competed for their place at Leamington Spa with Nigel Siford & Shane Cooper overcoming Andy McIntyre & David Leighfield 16 -8 shots.
In the first Triples semi-final, Gerald Mayles, John Nicholls & Chris Charles (Ban Boro) beat Nigel Siford, Martin Shepherd and Will Parker (W.Wit) by 25-16.
In the fours championship, Dave Pearce-Jones, Dan Wakeman, Tim Jupp & Remy Clanfield (Cart) won their semi final against Gerald Mayles, John Nichols, Paul Hilton & Chris Charles (Ban B) by 14-11 shots after the 18th end.
In the other Fours semi-final, which was a very close contest, the West Witney quartet of David Leighfield, Harvey Alder, Kevin Alder & Shane Cooper beat Jon Philpott, Ray Gaskins, Howard Watts & Nick Rae-Welsh, by the margin of 18-17.
The second Triples semi-final was played on Monday 17 July with the Chipping Norton trio of Mick Boobyer, Tony Smith & David Lattimore getting off to a good start, however the Headington trio of Jon Philpott, Nathan Lewis & Howard Watts used their experience to catch them up and overtake them, with a final score of 21-10 in their favour. The second 2 Wood singles semi-final was played between Chris Charles of Banbury Borough and AJ Docherty of Banbury Central, with Chris winning 14-11 after 20 ends.
The last 4 wood Singles semi- final was played on Tuesday 18 July, between Howard Watts (Head) and Lee Young (Ban Cent). The victor was Lee Young, who won by 21-9 shots
Congratulations to all winning semi-finalists.
