Hard work pays off for World champion McNabb

TRILLICK’S Gary McNabb was on top of the world on Sunday night after he clinched the biggest title of his illustrious indoor bowls career to date.

“That’s the biggest one I’ve ever got,” he beamed. “It’s the most prestigious tournament that you can win. There were competitors from all over the British Isles – Isle of Man, England, Scotland and Wales – Netherlands, Norwegians, Belgians, Canadians, the whole lot.

“It means a lot and I’m ecstatic because it’s hard earned. You’re playing for three solid days.”

The Mid Tyrone Zone man defeated Matty Worden in the singles final of the World Short Mat Bowls Council Championships, having already ousted the reigning champion, another English man, Alex Kley in the last four.

To reach the knockout stage of the tournament, which was played over three days, culminating in the final on St Patrick’s Day, McNabb finished second in Group A behind Worden, having decided against showing his hand during their clash early in the Championship.

Although he lost that encounter 19-9, he did win all of his other games – 17-11 against Belgium’s Jonathan Payne, 22-6 against Canada’s Travis Anderson, 27-4 against Germanys’ Mike Dwilling, 13-11 over Isle of Man’s Stephen Gale, 13-12 over Scotland’s Andrew Adamson, 15-10 against Sweden’s Joel Hager, 23-2 over Norway’s Lars-Rune Lauritzen and 15-7 against Wales’ Arwell Morgan – to take the runner-up spot in the group.

That led to a tough task against the reigning champion, Kley, but using his experience, McNabb got the job done with some time to spare, a trick he repeated in the decider against Worden, who came up against a much tougher opponent than during their group clash.

“Worden has been winning a lot of things in England and he and Alex Kley are probably the two top singles players in the country at the minute,” McNabb acknowledged.

“I was four up on them both going into the last end [during the knockout games]. I was 15-11 up on Alex Kley last end and I was 12-8 up on Matty Warden last end, so it was very relaxed. The ends before were the tense ones but I had to control it, I couldn’t do anything silly in order to get over the line.

“And there was no better feeling winning it against the English on St Patrick’s Day!”

Sunday’s success caps a quite remarkable season for McNabb. The Finona Pearses BC man won the Champion of Champions title, as well as the Short Mat Players Tour’s Irish Open and World Cup, and while he still has one tournament to go this term, the World Masters in Belfast, which if he won would return him to the top of the world rankings, he’s happy with his lot.

“I have an Irish title and a World title in the one season, which is pretty big. It’s probably my best season to date,” he beamed.

“I’m number three [in the rankings] but I still have a chance to get back to number one, which would be nice but we’ll see how it goes because this is the one I’ve been working towards, this is the one I wanted.

“It doesn’t get any bigger and I’ve put in a lot of hours over the last few months getting ready for it, but it paid off.”