Warwickshire and Herefordshire had join forces to form successful Amy Rose team

Lily-Mae Adams from the Welford-On-Avon Bowls Club has helped the Warwickshire Association secure a place at the national finals.

She was part of the successful Amy Rose team which won through to the national showpiece event in August.

Warwickshire and Herefordshire had joined forces for this new team competition of five girls under the age of 24 who played all day against Leicestershire, Derbyshire/Nottinghamshire and Northamptonshire to take the crown.

They fought their way from 9.30am to 7pm through six games (two sets of six each game – seven sets for the singles) to come out on top.

It was no mean feat and went down to the wire as they were in second position until the last half hour of the day when they managed to pull out all the stops and win against Northamptonshire who until then had been in the lead.

It puts them in a strong position to face what will be tougher opposition in the national finals at Leamington in August.

Stratford bowlers Vivienne Belt, Debbie Bloxham and Elspeth Summers were part of the Warwickshire side for their first game of the season against Leicestershire at Narborough Bowling Club.

Belt was part of the highest winning rink who were level pegging for most of the game but just managed to pull away towards the end to finish 17-12 ahead.

Bloxham and Summers started slowly on their rink but were level at 4-4 on the seventh end before the Leicestershire team started to pull away but three shots on the 17th and two on the last made all the difference and they won 13-12.

Unfortunately the remaining teams were unable to hold their own and lost by narrow margins as reflected in the final result with Warwickshire just losing out by four shots at 84-88.