Scotland’s Stewart Anderson had to play his way out of trouble in a tie break, to shake off England’s Andy Walters in their opening round of their ‘Just’ World Indoor Singles campaign.
Anderson, who won the title in 2013 and again in ’18 against Paul Foster and Simon Skelton respectively, dominated in the opening set, forcing reigning British Isles Singles Champion Walters to play a procession of thundering strikes and winning 10-4 with an end to spare.
In the second though, 33 year old Walters came onto a better game while Anderson wasn’t quite firing on all cylinders.
Andy, a coach driver from Evesham, held off a late challenge from Anderson and won the set 9-8 to force a tie break which see-sawed one way then the other but in the end the result went to Anderson when he drew the shot to within six inches of a ditched jack to win 2-0.
A disappointed Walters said “my game was average”, while both players agreed that it was difficult to maintain form because as the game progressed, the weight of the carpet varied.
Anderson added “while we’re all maintaining the social aspects at this event, it’s plain that we’re missing the usual audience participation.
And smiling said “We don’t know if we’ve played a good or a bad bowl – there’s no-one here to let us know. Hopefully we’ll welcome everyone back next year to taste the unique atmosphere that this venue delivers”.
“JUST” World Open Singles
Result
Stewart Anderson (Scot) bt Andy Walters (Eng) 10-4, 8-9, 2-0