Royal Leamington Spa bowls team competing in this weekend's nationals at Victoria Park

Royal Leamington Spa BC’s ladies Top Club team have qualified for the final stages of this year’s National competition at Victoria Park this weekend, featuring the top eight teams from across the country. After winning the Warwickshire section, Spa beat Worcestershire champions, Broadway last month in the first round of the National stages and last weekend faced Wiltshire champions Box, in the second round. A quick singles win (21-10) for Spa, followed by an 10-26 loss in the triples left the match tied at 1-1. In an exciting finish, the pairs game started their last end with Spa trailing by one shot. They scored a full-house of 6 shots for a 16-11 win, putting Spa ahead 2-1 in the match and levelling the aggregate shot score with just the rink game to finish. With Spa ahead 13-10 going into the last end, they just needed to avoid defeat to put the team into the final stages for the first time in their history. They held their nerve and a 13-12 win gave Spa a 3-1 overall victory. In the quarter-final , Spa will face Kings BC from Torquay in Devon.