There was no joy in the singles for Worcestershire's representatives as both Grant Burgess and Marc Stones lost their first round matches. The first round of the singles was delayed by about three quarters of an hour, whilst the prelim matches were played (these started at 8.15 am because the greens were waterlogged the previous afternoon). The hanging about seemed to affect Marc Stones as he struggled to get going in the early stages and found himself 10-0 down after 6 ends having dropped three twos and three ones against Graham Ashby of Warwickshire. Marc started to pick up the odd shot but still found himself 14-1 and then 17-5 adrift. Marc then started to get into the match as Graham went off the boil a little, and pulled the score back to 17-9. Two singles to Graham followed to put him 19-9 in front. Marc wouldn't give up and a run of ends saw him pick up 1,3,1,2 although he will be disappointed the three wasn't a four and the two wasn't a three as he had more than a yard to add another with his last bowl on each of those ends. This was the end of Marc's comeback as Graham scored two singles to seal the match 21-16. In contrast Grant Burgess got off to a decent start and lead 4-3 after five ends. He went on to play some confident shots to increase this lead to 10-6 before Richard Bolton from Romford in Essex hit back. He started to pick up shots and had reduced the deficit to 13-11, but Grant was still in control. The next end proved crucial as Grant played what seemed to be the perfect take out shot when two down on the next end when he removed both bowls to seemingly leave himself with three shots, but unfortunately the jack also moved sideways to leave Richard holding one and he added a second to leave the score 13-13. Grant scored on the next end, but this was to be his last success as Richard scored eight unanswered shots to go through 21-14.
The unheralded Gilt Edge pair of Clive Woolley and John Reynolds put up two strong performances before suffering a narrow second round defeat. In the first round the played a colourful Cornwall pair (playing with a mixture of yellow and red bowls) who were obviously confident of victory. The Cornwall pair were Treve Evans and John Stafford from Penzance and there was a marked difference in the way that the two teams appeared to be playing the game. The Cornwall pair were obviously up for the game whereas Clive and John just quietly got on with it. After an even opening (6-6 after eight ends), Worcestershire forged into the lead picking up three two's to lead 12-6. Cornwall bounced back picking up 5 shots over the next 5 ends (including a tied end on the 13th), but Worcestershire still lead 12-11 and were playing well enough to have picked up shots on any of the previous five ends. The team exchanged twos over the next two ends to go into the last three ends leading by one 14-13. On the nineteenth end Worcestershire held one, when Cornwall attacked the head, they only succeeded in removing their own bowl and with John adding a third, Worcestershire lead by 4. A two for Cornwall set up an exciting finish. Cornwall killed the first attempt at playing the end with the last bowl with Worcestershire holding a good two shots. On the replayed end Cornwall had a chance with their last bowl but just failed to turn their own bowl onto the Gilt Edge shot bowl, so Clive and John held on for a deserved three shot victory. In the second round they played Tony Morton and Jeff Newson from Belvedere in Huntindonshire. In a tight game throughout, Worcestershire built up good heads only to see the Hunts skip recover the situation with his third or fourth bowl on many occasions. With Worcestershire keeping the jack when they won it and Hunts giving it away it meant that Worcestershire were controlling the length of the jack, but Hunts always had the last bowl. Hunts took an early lead (5-1 after 4 ends) but Worcestershire bounced back to tie the scores at 7-7 after 10 ends. The scores continued to be tight with Worcestershire picking up a three to level the scores at 10-10 after 14 ends and dropping a two to make it 12-12 after 16. Worcestershire picked up a two on the 17th but dropped a three and a one over the next two ends to trail 16-14 after 19 ends. The 20th end proved to be conclusive with Gilt Edge holding a very good five shots on a full length jack after John had bowled his second bowl. The Hunts skip played through the head and managed to move the jack out to the side to one of his own bowls, and with John unable to retrieve the situation Hunts picked up a two to go into the last end needing a four. With the weather worsening, Gilt Edge never really had a chance of the four they needed and Hunts picked up another two to win 20-14.
The Worcestershire pair of Richard Hall and Rob Dawson went down in the first round despite their huge experience on the Worthing greens. In their first round game they were up against the same skip (Antony Bennett) who had ended Mark Rainbow's hopes in the fours, but his lead had not been in the fours (Darren Gosnell). Middlesex had the advantage of playing a preliminary round to get used to the speed of the greens, although with heavy rain falling for most of Monday morning this shouldn't have been too much of an advantage. Worcestershire opened brightly scoring two on the first end when Rob trailed the jack with his last bowl, and were slightly unlucky to drop a two on the second end. Middlesex built a good head on the third end and Rob just failed to save and shots slipping just through with his third and just short with his last when drawing to cut down the count (Middlesex picked up a five). Middlesex went on to increase the lead t6o 11-2 after five ends, but Droitwich bounced back to pick up four shots over the next two ends to trail by five after seven ends (6-11). Middlesex went on to pick up two fours and a two over the next four ends with Droitwich only managing to reply with a two of their own. This made the score 19-8 to Middlesex. Despite an improved performance (albeit without any luck) from the halfway stage by the Worcestershire pair, the Middlesex pair were playing with confidence and the game finished after 19 ends with the score 26-14.
The Gilt Edge four consisting of Husband and Wife duo Margaret and Peter Stokes and Brother and Sister Mark and Lynn Sandoz had battled hard all season to reach the last 16 of the mixed fours which has been played at Worthing for the last two seasons. The group had consisted of teams from Worcestershire, Herefordshire and Warwickshire and the Gilt Edge team had done well to qualify. In the last 16 round they were up against a quartet from Herts BC and Hertfordshire and had a comfortable 22-10 win. This put them through to the quarter final where they lost 13-17 against a team from Box BC in Wiltshire, despite a performance that earned a number of plaudits from those watching.
The Brotherhood triple of Alf Russell, Tony Tudge and Alan Lerry gave Worcestershire supporters something to cheer about by winning their first round match, before going out against a high quality triple skipped by Nicky Brett in the second round. In the first round they played against a triple from Kidlington in Oxfordshire, skipped by Lionel Lewis. The Worcestershire triple made a nervous start and trailed by 6 shots after two ends. However, they soon found their confidence and had reduced this deficit to 7-8 at the half way stage. Nothing that had happened thus far gave any indication of what was to come as the Oxfordshire triple suddenly struggled to find the right length playing back towards the pavilion, whereas the Brotherhood triple continued with their good line and length. The result was a five and a six, and despite Oxfordshire scoring a single on the 11th end, Worcestershire lead 18-9 after 12 ends. Oxfordshire then went on a scoring spree of their own (having brought the mat up and rediscovered their form) with two singles and two twos over the next four ends, which left Brotherhood leading by three with two ends to play. The Oxfordshire lead built a good head, but Tony wrested the shot bowl with his second delivery and it remained there to leave Brotherhood 4 up going into the last. When Alan came to bowl on the last end it looked safe but he then turned the jack round the corner to an Oxford bowl when holding shot. A great bowl from the Oxford skip made this three shots and it was suddenly not so safe. Alan managed to get third bowl, but with his last bowl the Oxfordshire skip had the chance to get four or five shots if he turned his second bowl onto Worcestershire's nearest. He was very close but the bowl just drifted through and Brotherhood were through to the second round. In the second round they were up against Nicky Brett's triple (Simon Leader and Jamie Reynolds) from White Hart Warboys in Huntingdonshire. The Hunts triple had had plenty of time to prepare having seen off Pip Branfield's triple in the first round in 14 ends. Brotherhood made another bad start dropping a five on the first end, but soon bounced back with two twos, to trail by just one shot (5-4) after three ends. They then dropped a three before sharing singles to trail 9-5 after six ends. Unfortunately a four on the seventh end gave Hunts a healthy 13-5 lead. Worcestershire picked up single on the next two ends to ignite hopes of a comeback, only to drop a five on the tenth end. This meant that Brotherhood need to pull back 11 shots over the last 8 ends. They never gave up but their only success was a two on the 12th end. With Hunts scoring heavily (including a five on the 14th end), the match finished after 16 ends with Worcestershire trailing 30-9.
In contrast to the fours, Vines Park's triple made a great comeback after a poor start only to be thwarted with the very last bowl. The first surprise of the day was to see that Vines Park had swapped the order of play with Ian Crowe skipping and Pete Turner playing in the middle of the triple with Arnie Nicklin leading, due to Pete's shoulder not being 100%. They were playing a side from Essex County skipped by Arron Lyons who had had a comfortable win in the prelims the previous day. Vines Park made a poor start dropping three shots on the first end and trailing 6-2 after 6 ends (it could have been worse had Ian not pushed one of his own bowls in for shot from four feet short when Essex held two). If they thought that this was bad, the 7th end was to see it get even worse, with Essex picking up six shots to lead 12-2 after just seven ends. Vines Park shared the shots over the next 6 ends and were 16-6 down after 13 ends. The next two ends were to change the complexion of the match, with Worcestershire picking up a three and a five to go into the last three ends trailing by just two shots. Essex stopped the rot on the sixteenth end with a single but Vines Park replied with a single of their own to go into the last end needing two to force an extra end. Vines Park decided to take the jack and when Ian came to bowl his first bowl a good head had been built up, but Essex held one shot. Ian turned one of his own bowls up from just short of the jack to lie two shots, only for the Essex skip to take out the second bowl. With his last bowl Ian lay shot about a foot behind the jack and had another about two foot through, with Essex's second bowl about 18 inches to the side. Ian just missed the trail of the jack but did end up drawing second bowl wresting his shot bowl about a foot through. The Essex skip, facing the prospect of an extra end, decided to draw with his last bowl, and with perfect line and length drew the shot.
For the second day running Worcestershire's representatives went out of the fours after an encouraging start. This time it was the rink from Bredon (Pete Griffin, John Bridge, Pat White and Maurice Pullin) who made a solid start only to see it slip away in the second half of the game. Bredon were playing against a rink from the Hexham Elvaston club in Northumberland, skipped by Craig Cooper, who is Marc Stones' skip in the Junior Internationals. At the start of the game Bredon were winning the ends towards the sea and Northumberland were winning the ends the other way, but with Northumberland giving the jack away, Pete was able to control the length of the jack. This pattern continued for the first seven ends with the score at 6-6. It was Bredon who broke the pattern scoring a two on the eighth end to lead 8-6 and it could have been a bigger lead if the Northumberland skip not taken Worcestershire's shot bowl out with his last to score a three on the 4th end. Northumberland went on a 4 end winning run from the 9th to 12th ends scoring three singles and a double to lead 11-8, but Bredon bounced straight back with a three to square the game again at 11-11 after thirteen ends. Northumberland had just the better of the next three ends and lead 15-12 after 16 ends. The real turning point came on the 17th end where Bredon held a good three shots, but Craig fired and hit a single bowl target to kill the end and then wrested the Bredon shot bowl for one on the replayed end. On the next end Maurice played a great bowl with his last to get the jack out from right behind a Northumberland bowl, but unfortunately he was still one down and Craig added a second. This left Bredon still in with a chance at six down with three to play, but any hope they had disappeared at the next when Northumberland picked up a five and with a further two on the 20th end, Bredon were out.
Worcestershire's four from Broadway (Steve Aldren, Dave Cresswell, Dennis Hall and Mark Rainbow) were unfortunate enough to have to start their campaign a day before most of the other competitors having been given an early second round slot on Sunday. They faced a Middlesex team from Broomfield, skipped by Andrew Bennett. It didn't seem to worry them as they raced into a 8-2 lead after 5 ends with Mark converting a two down to two up situation on the fifth end with a slight deflection off a short bowl. By the 12th end Worcestershire had increased their lead to 14-6 and it could have been even more had Mark not just missed a chance on the ninth end to take a bowl out for two or jack back for four. Middlesex bounced back as the Worcestershire rink were unlucky on the next two ends. On the 13th Mark Rainbow faced a two down situation, managed to move the jack, but was still two down and Andrew Bennett managed to draw a third. On the 14th Worcestershire held shot just short of the jack with a Middlesex bowl second just behind, the Middlesex skip played with weight and the jack bounced back up the green and Mark was just a little too heavy with his last bowl and Middlesex scored two. Visibly buoyed by this the Middlesex team went on to also score on the next 5 ends as well to score a total of 14 unanswered shots to go 20-14 up after 19 ends. Despite Broadway's best efforts they could only muster two singles and went out 20-16.
Richard Moule (Droitwich Spa) won his first game on a tiebreaker but lost in two sets in the second round of the under 25 singles on Saturday. In his first round match against Simon Jones from Berkshire (a Junior International since 2001), Richard bowled superbly to win the first set 10-4. But in the second set Simon started bringing the mat up and bowling short jacks and dominated the set to win it 12-1. This meant a three end tie-breaker where it is just the number of ends one that counts rather than the number of shots. Richard lost the first end but then produced a trail shot to win the second and then drew a shot just past the jack when facing game against to win the tie-break by two ends to one and hence progress through to the second round two sets to one. After this tense finish Richard was unable to recapture his form in the second round and lost by two sets to nil (10-4 10-6) against Nathan Beeson from Southey in Surrey.