LBIOM

First up on day three saw the Manxies in the mixed pairs event against Wales. Unfortunately the game went entirely the way of the Welsh. Kristian Crocker seemed keen to not have a second defeat in a 12 hour period inflicted upon him by the Isle of Man, and he delivered when it mattered. Overall the Welsh were on fire and we suffered a two set defeat. Thankfully the match gave the team time to get their bad bowls out of the way as they looked forward to their respective singles games.

Caroline was next up in the first afternoon session of the day. She faced Marianne Kuenzie of Switzerland. Caroline started slowly, and I am unsure whether her head was still on the rink with Wales, thinking where it went wrong, so the first set was sewn up by the Swiss by the midway point. That said, she seemed to give herself a talking to and she came good in the second set, leading from the outset and keeping the lead to claim the set, which took the game into overtime! It wasn’t to be for Caroline in the end, but certainly overall it’s another positive step forward. She faces some stiff opposition still but has the potential to claim a victory yet.

The mid afternoon session saw Clive play against Japan’s Hisaharu Satou, who had shown that he was very capable of performing well with his very straight XG bowls. Clive was able to use his experience and not dwell on the defeat suffered in the pairs earlier on, and took the game by the scruff of the neck from the very first end. He controlled the game superbly and prevented Satou from gaining any form of momentum. Clive won 12-5, 10-2, which makes him three from three. Overnight he tops his group and a showdown with the tournament favourite Shannon McIlroy awaits. Clive becomes the first person in the competition to secure a place in the knockout stages, what place specifically will be determined following the match against the Kiwi. For those who are unaware on the conditions of play, the winner of each group along with one randomly selected runner up progress automatically to the quarterfinals. The other runner ups will face off in a playoff to earn their right to progress.