First match of the afternoon here at Newton Hall in the Co-operative Funeralcare International Open was Scotland’s Alex Marshall MBE against Australia’s Ben Twist. The first set was a closely fought affair with both players fielding bowls of a good calibre. By the end of the 5th it was only one shot difference with Marshall taking the honours to go 4-3 up. He then took a single and a double leaving Twist having to find some good bowls to stay in the set, Twist managed to take a single off Marshall in the 8th but it was Marshall that denied Twist the set by playing superb bowls to hold Twist to a single in the 9th leaving Marshall to take the set 7-5.
Into the second set and Marshall had found his line and weight almost perfectly and simply denied Twist an opening. Although Twist played some good solid bowls it was Marshall that seemingly just edged Twist all the way and Marshall took the second set 11-3 to take the match in two clean sets.