England’s 2025 National Champions travelled north to the Scottish National Bowling Centre in Ayr this week to compete against rival National Champions from Scotland, Wales, Ireland and Jersey.
On world class greens and under beautiful blue skies, the players shone, winning five gold medals and four silver to top last year’s total by two.
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Gold Medal Winners
Women’s Fours | Sara George, Olivia Starr, Laura Holden & Stef Branfield (Clevedon, Somerset)
A dominant 22-14 over Wales in the semi-finals set England’s Women’s Fours up against a very strong Scotland team who had sneaked past Ireland 13-12. An extremely tight match ensued with the English girls pulling just clear for a superb 16-14 win against the home team. The win sees England retain its grip on the Women’s Fours.
Men’s Fours | Josh Grant, Ashley Clipston, Dan Thornhill & Phillip Broughton (The Stute, Derbyshire)
The Derbyshire men pulled out two fantastic performances to win the gold medal, defeating a game Jersey Four 21-15 in the semis before equalling the Women’s feat and defeating Scotland in the final – 18-15. The victory will be extra sweet for Grant, Thornhill & Broughton who lost out in the Men’s Triples last year.
Women’s U18 Singles | Grace Read (Milton Park BC, Hampshire)
Grace Read continued her superb form from last year’s National Finals, coming from behind to take down Scotland 21-17 in the semi-final. The final proved to be much more controlled, Read pulling away significantly to earn a 21-7 gold medal win.
Men’s U18 Singles | Ollie Jeapes (Parkway BC, Huntingdonshire)
Not to be outdone, Men’s U18 player Ollie Jeapes secured gold with a nerveless display in the final. After beating Wales 21-13, Jeapes showed an ice cold demeanour and calmness under pressure to take a brilliant 21-20 win over Scotland.
Men’s U25 Singles | Charlie Beeton (Felixstowe & Suffolk BC, Suffolk)
The future of English bowls looks very bright indeed, with Read, Jeapes and Charlie Beeton all winning gold in junior categories. Beeton, the only gold medal winner to come through a preliminary round, dominated Jersey 21-6 before coming through a sterner test of Wales, 21-16 in the semi-final. As proved to be a bit of a trend throughout the Finals Day, England would face Scotland for gold, with Beeton maintaining great form to take it 21-17.
Silver Medals Winners
Men’s Singles | Isaac Jenner (Appleyard BC, Kent)
Jenner secured a fantastic win in the semi-final vs Wales, but couldn’t quite overcome the home favourite, losing 21-12 to Scotland in the final.
Women’s Pairs | Caroline Cullum & Chelsea Spencer (Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire)
By the time they reached the final vs Scotland, Cullum & Spencer had defeated Ireland and Jersey, as well as competing in the Women’s Triples. They couldn’t quite repeat the form that got them to the final, losing 21-8 to Scotland to claim a well-deserved silver.
Women’s Triples | Caroline Cullum, Ruby Philpott & Chelsea Spencer (Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire)
Not settling for one silver, Cullum and Spencer joined up with Ruby Philpott to secure another after a fine semi-final win over Wales. Ireland proved too much in the final, winning 23-6.
Men’s U25 Pairs | Kieran Jaycock & Thomas Jaycock (Buckinghamshire)
Another great result for our junior players came with a silver medal for the brothers Jaycock. A superb 18-11 win over Wales in the semis set them up with a final vs Scotland. The home team won 17-10 and Kieran and Thomas earned a magnificent silver medal.
Ten of the Best
Strong Performances Across the Board
While not every England National Champion made it to a final for a medal, there were several promising performances during the two days and a couple close losses that would be wins on another day.
James Hampton and Owen Cox (Kings BC, Devon) pushed eventual champions Ireland all the way in the Men’s Pairs, falling just short in the end, 23-17.
The Men’s Triples team of Simon Broom, Jamie Chestney and Mark Perrot (Culm Vale BC, Devon) played out an even tighter match in the prelim round vs finalists Wales, but the 20-19 scoreline saw them just miss out.
Ava Karanth and Yasmina Hasan (Surrey) went down to a similarly tight scoreline in their u25 Women’s Pairs semi-final, losing 13-14 to eventual winners Ireland.
Tough preliminary matchups for Stef Branfield (Clevedon BC, Somerset) and Izzie White (Chester Rd BC, Worcestershire) in the Women’s Singles and U25 Singles saw them miss a chance at a medal, although Branfield did recover form this with a gold medal in the Women’s Fours.
There were also semi-final exits for Dawn Horne, Anita Cowdrill, Jenny Wickens & Janice White (Royal Leamington Spa BC, Warwickshire) and Phil Sturman, Dave Wilde, Neil Clarke & Mark Sandoz (Gilt Edge BC, Worcestershire) in the Over-55 Fours.
The Championships offered an excellent platform for our National Champions to test themselves against the best in Britain. Well done to all the players, thank you to the coaches and congratulations to our medallists.
With the British Bowls Championships now complete, attention turns to the international series taking place this week. England’s elite bowlers have returned to action in the British Bowls International Series and it promises to be as competitive as ever.
The International Series is currently taking place at the Scottish National Bowling Centre in Ayr until Sunday 28 June. England will face Ireland, Jersey, Scotland and Wales across a packed schedule of top-tier matches.
Check out the teams, schedule and live scoring here.
Images: KT Photography | Sporting Highlights