England Manager Chris Willies, who plays for Watton Expendables, takes his England team to Skien Fritidspark in Norway this weekend to compete in the World Championships. His selected team includes five of the Norfolk side that tasted success in the British Isles Championships for England and the Top Team event for Norfolk in Ireland earlier in the season. As previously announced England’s team is as follows; Singles Matty Worden and Ross Dunkley. Pairs Adam Easthope & Nathan Caines, Jim Trott & Sam Harvey. Triples Jason McLean, Michael Doorey & Jason Woods, Jack Pye, AJ Pye & Adam Smith. Fours Morgan Warnes, Danny Hogben, Gary Best & Jody Frampton. Steve Stanton, Jack Knight, Ben Riley & Emily Thomas.
Kent’s Jody Frampton will be fancied to lift the World Fours title with Bob Carter’s Morgan Warnes at lead and Carter’s Gary Best at number three. Danny Hogben will be filling the number two spot in this four. Norway’s Gunnar Frantzen will be skipping one of the host nation’s fours and would love to win the title on home soil. The vastly experienced Lawrence Moffat will be skipping a Scottish four while the Irish fours are skipped by Jamie Glackin and Jackie Erskine. Defending the World Fours title and representing Wales will be Alan Evans, Andrew Evans & Michael John but this time around they have Jonno Gladstone at lead instead of Aled Edwards.
Wymondham’s Jack Pye and AJ Pye, with Adam Smith at skip, will be looking to successfully defend the World Triples title they won in Belfast in 2024 and they will take some stopping. Jason Woods of Bob Carter will be skipping an English triple with Jason McLean at lead and Michael Doorey at number two and will relish the opportunity of competing in the World Triples. The Irish triples will be skipped by Paul Duff and Gerard Conroy and could be the greatest threat to the English triples. Nick Evans & Cennydd Howell skip the strong Welsh triples while Ferdinand Frantzen and johningar Larsen skip the Norway triples. Volker Kirmse skips the German triple while Laura Mounce and Peter Stuart-Sheppard skip Canadian triples.
Dimitri & Jonathan Payne of Belgium are among the favourites for the World Pairs crown as are Alan Paul & John Quinn of Ireland. The two English pairs of Adam Easthope & Nathan Caines and Jim Trott & Sam Harvey will also be expected to be in contention. Among the other pairs competing are Germany’s Ulf Schadel & Mirko Limmer, Robbie Roberts & Marijke Kas of the Netherlands and Joel Hager & Magnus Nordin Aronsson of Sweden.
Among the bowlers competing for the coveted World Singles title against England’s Matty Worden and Ross Dunkley will be the defending World Singles champion Gary McNabb of Ireland. Former England singles champion Simon Pridham is also Norway bound to represent Cyprus where he has lived and worked for several years now, Simon is a class bowler and will be difficult to beat. Stephen Williams of Wales, no stranger to lifting the World Singles crown, will have his eyes focussed firmly on another title. Among the other players representing their countries are Sibe Laureys of Belgium, Jonas Hager of Sweden, Irish contender Colum McHugh, Stephen Gale of the Isle of Man, Frans Roberts of the Netherlands and Jake Masterson and Terry Bradshaw of Canada.
The World Short Mat Bowls Championships is sure to provide some brilliant bowling with the crème de la crème of the sport taking part, it is such a pity that much of the media that covers world sport is likely to more or less ignore it. They simply don't know what they are missing!
The NCSMBA would like to wish the best of luck to Chris Willies and his England team, and hope that it proves to be an extremely successful weekend in Norway for England.
Defending champions Adam Smith, AJ Pye & Jack Pye
