David Leach Proud Of Lawn Bowls Team
[Written by Stephen Wright]
David Leach, the Bermuda Bowls Association president, described the International Island Games in Orkney, Scotland, as a valuable learning experience for the national team.
Representing Bermuda in lawn bowls were Leach, his daughter Tamara Leach, Dave and Jude Barton, along with Braden and Jinhwa Rustand.
Although the team did not secure a medal, Leach – who won bronze at the 2023 Games in Guernsey – expressed pride in their performance.
“It was great for Team Bermuda to be so competitive,” Leach said.
“We came extremely close to a medal in both the men’s singles and the women’s pairs, only losing out on shot difference.”
The team’s near-misses highlighted just how tight the competition was.
“In the women’s singles, Jude won a set against each of her opponents [including gold, silver and bronze medallists] and also won one end of the tie-break in four out of her five matches,” Leach said.
“In the men’s singles, I was the only player to win a set against Michael Rive, gold medallist, who reached a career high World Bowls ranking of 45 last year. I also beat the bronze medallist 2-0.”
Team Bermuda also came within striking distance in the men’s triples.
“In the men’s triples, we came very close to a win in our matches against Shetland, Western Isles and Guernsey, losing each match by no more than two points,” Leach said.
“We were also 9-1 up against Orkney [gold medallists] and still ahead with two ends to play before finally succumbing.”
Leach also highlighted the unusual scoring format used in the singles events – the only ones played in sets.
“The scoring of the singles – the only events to be played in set format – was very unusual,” he added.
“Ties on points were separated on shot difference, disregarding the number of sets won.
“In World Bowls events, points are allocated as one point per set plus one point for a win.
“Results on that system are shown in the column ‘WB Scoring’, which would have put me in second place and Jude in fifth.”
