IAN Roe took his first club singles title in the Ross Bowling Club Short Mat handicapped singles competition and brought the winter season to a conclusion.

The final of the singles competition was a match-up between the previous year’s county singles finalists as he faced Ian Park but not before each had to negotiate a tricky semi-final.

Park, three times county singles champion, met Leo Hughes in his semi-final and after 10 of the 15 ends the game was tied but then pulled away with a couple of 3’s and a 4 to win with an end to spare.

Roe came up against Peter Wright, this year’s surprise package, who was playing his first season of short mat bowls with a six handicap.

Wright had used this handicap well throughout the competition, playing impressive bowls to keep lower handicapped opponents at bay in the early stages of matches and never allow them to achieve parity, let alone get ahead of him.

In the semi-final, however, Roe won the first four ends to overhaul his handicap deficit before Wright had scored and he never let his lead slip.

The final saw Park dominate early on as Roe struggled to find the pace of the mat but Park’s lead never got above three shots and as Roe settled down he started to claw back the deficit.

A see-saw battle then ensued as first one and then the other led before Roe took three consecutive ends to establish a five shot lead which proved too large a deficit for Park to claw back and Roe took his first club singles title.

Club president John Perks presented the awards for all of the club competitions which had run over the winter season. The competition winners were: Singles- Ian Roe; Evening Triples- Jillian Malsom, Maurice Leake & Ian Roe; Afternoon Pairs- Ian Stephenson & Ian Park; Afternoon Australian Pairs- Derek Griffiths & Ian Roe; Afternoon Triples 1- Pauline Mills, Betty Aubrey & David Millington Jones; Afternoon Triples 2- John Churchill, Rob Mann & Les Williams.

The end of the season also marked the end of an era as Les Williams, after serving as club short mat secretary and captain for 25 years, decided it was time to step down from the helm.

Williams has represented Ross and Herefordshire at short mat bowls at the highest level level over that time, including numerous appearances in the National Finals.