England bowlers enjoyed a great day two in the World Championships in Norway and hopes are still high of returning with silverware. Both triples are safely through to the World Triples Quarter-Finals where defending champions Jack Pye, AJ Pye & Adam Smith will face Paul Duff’s Irish triple and Jason McLean, Michael Doorey & Jason Woods will play Norway’s Ferdinand Frantzen. The other games will see Nick Evans of Wales up against Alan Masson of Scotland and Gerard Conroy of Ireland against Cennydd Howell of Wales. Adam Smith’s triple reeled off four straight wins on Saturday with a 13-8 win against Frantzen’s triple, a 21-8 win against Sweden’s Connie Svensson, a 21-9 win against Belgium’s Roby Vannoppen and a 17-4 win against Canada’s John MacKencie. Jason Woods won three of his four games beating Paul Jordan of Cyprus 15-7, Johningar Larsen of Norway 20-4 and Alan Mason’s Scottish triple by 13-10. That made it eight wins out of nine for Jason's triple over the first two days.
In the World Singles England’s Matty Worden won four games and lost just one on Saturday and has qualified for the quarter-finals where he will face Sweden’s Jonas Hagar. Matty’s wins were 32-2 against Germany’s Mike Dwilling, 17-8 against Belgium’s Pieterjan Stevens, 16-8 against Stephen Williams of Wales and 16-14 against Scotland’s Graeme Allan. His only reverse was by 6-13 against Benny Sjogren of Sweden. England’s other singles player Ross Dunkley failed to make the quarter-finals after two wins and two defeats on Saturday. The quarter-final sees defending champion Gary McNabb up against Colum McHugh in an all Irish clash that will be a game to watch. The other quarter-finals see Sibe Laureys of Belgium playing Benny Sjogren of Sweden and Stephen Gale of the Isle of Man playing Andrew Hudson of Wales.
Both England entries are through to the World Pairs quarter-finals where Adam Easthope & Nathan Caines will play Scotland’s Murray Mason & Sandy McDonald and Jim Trott & Sam Harvey will play Belgium’s Dimitri & Jonathan Payne. The other quarter-finals see John Quinn of Ireland against Sean Hughes of Wales and Steve Durcan of the Isle of Man against Magnus Nordin Aronsson of Sweden. Nathan Caines’ pair won three of their four games on Saturday beating Marijke Kas of Netherlands 29-3, Alan McLelland of Scotland 16-5 and Travis Anderson of Canada by 17-12 with their only loss a 7-16 defeat at the hands of the Paynes from Belgium.
The World Fours groups still have their last group games to play on Sunday morning but Morgan Warnes, Danny Hogben, Gary Best & Jody Frampton sit top of Group B after wins of 20-3 against Sweden’s Fredric Larsson, 16-2 against Scotland’s Scott White and 15-5 against Norway’s Gunnar Frantzen with their other game drawn 8-8 against Chris McWhinnie’s Welsh four. That makes it six wins and one draw over the opening two days for them. In Group A Emily Thomas produced wins of 11-5 against Scotland’s Lawrence Moffat, 17-5 against Canada’s Rhys Warren and 13-8 against Sweden’s Bjarn Andersson with their only loss a narrow 7-8 defeat to Jackie Erskine of Ireland in a key match. Emily’s four will be looking for a good result in their final group game against Germany’s Andreas Hahn on Sunday morning. Both England fours teams are well positioned to qualify for the quarter-finals.
Jason Woods - eight wins from nine games so far