Early season success for Gary McNabb

GARY McNabb’s run of success on the mats continued at pace last weekend when he won the UK Open on the Short Mat Players Tour.

Just over a week after being named the players player of the year for the previous season, during which he won two Champion of Champions titles, World Fours Masters, World Pairs Masters, and the Irish National Singles crown, as well as leading Fintona Pearses Bowling Club to both the Mid Tyrone League and Galway Bay Hotel National Club Championship titles, he was lifting yet another trophy.

Even after all that success last season, McNabb was pleasantly surprised to start the new term on the front foot, especially after a summer with little practice – although the week before travelling to Chelmsford, he and his partner, Rachel McDonnell won the Markethill Pairs tournament.

“I was quite surprised with it being the start of the season and having not played much bowls,” he said. “I normally keep my hand in over the summer but I didn’t this summer because I was quite busy with work.

“But I played a tournament with Rachel the week before I went and we ended up winning that and then I hit England with no expectation.”

The Trillick man defeated Craig Burgess comprehensively in the final in Chelmsford, winning 13-2 in a surprisingly one-sided decider, but he didn’t have it all his own way in the last-four, edging out Ben Pay 9-8 after a thrilling last end.

In the quarter-finals he beat David Studden 12-5 after ousting Benny Sjögren 13-6 in the last-16, having accounted for Matt Stifford 12-5 in the previous round and Carol Taylor 13-10 before that. He also won his group to reach the knockout stages.

“I got my hand in on the Saturday to top my group and then on the Sunday, in every game, I kept getting better,” he beamed.

“I started to find my form but I was nearly beat in the semi-final by Ben Pay, who won the World’s a couple of years ago. I was two down last end, but got the tie-end and we played a tiebreaker, which I won.

“That went well and then the fella I was playing in the final, he’s one of the directors of the tour, but he just couldn’t get going and it was one of my easier games surprisingly.”

Next up for Gary is the Irish Open next week followed by his debut at the Norwegian Open where he’s planning to do a recce ahead of the World Championships.

“I haven’t hit Norway before, but I’m looking forward to it because the World’s are there in March,” he explained.

“I want to go over to get a bit of a feel for it. I’ve no real expectation over there because it’s a different surface, the mats are faster, so it will be about figuring out what bowls I’m going to need to play with for the World’s and it will give me some time to practice from then to March.”