OVER the final weekend of April, eight Cornish players travelled to Belfast for the finale of the Short Mat Players Tour season, the World Masters.

Amongst them were bowlers from the Cornish Times patch including Duloe’s Alan Trubshaw who was drawn in Group Six.

Saturday saw losses to Paddy McElvaney (17-7) and David Hall (13-6), a 13-11 win against Sean Breslin (IRE) and a defeat to England’s Dave Bignall (14-9). Sunday morning brought a large 18-3 win against Wales’ Vince Arnold to qualify for the Plate competition.

In the first round of the knockout stage, Alan won 12-11 against his Duloe clubmate Mark Slack. Alan’s run ended in the last 32 with a 14-4 defeat against David Miller (IRE).

Alan finished the season 303rd in the world rankings with 79 points and 192nd in the Order of Merit with 83 points.

Mark Slack (Duloe) was drawn in Group Five where Saturday brought a mixed set of results with a 14-14 draw against Charlie Clark (IRE), and wins against Suzanne Steele (10-9) and Chris Mcilmoyle either side of a 10-9 defeat to Andy Howard.

Sunday morning brought a 17-8 loss against Mark Granleese (IRE), before as mentioned, Alan Trubshaw defeated him in the Plate.

Mark finishes the season 162nd in the world rankings with 150 points and 83rd in the Order of Merit standings with 156 points.

Caroline Trubshaw (Duloe) won her first game in Group Three against Paul Hutson (ENG) 13-12, before losing her remaining group games against Alan Evans (WAL) (11-9), Ray Niblock (ENG) (16-6), Martin McNicholl (IRE) (16-4) and Ian McElroy (IRE) 15-4.

Caroline had a narrow defeat in the first round of the Shield competition, losing 12-11 to Lucas Moore (IRE).

Caroline finishes the season 508th in the rankings with 21 points and 363rd in the Order of Merit standings with 27 points.

Ian Crossett (Saltash Kernow) was drawn in Group Twenty where he started with a large 22-3 win against Michael O’Reilly, which was followed up by a loss by the same scoreline to P.J. Gallagher (IRE).

There were further defeats on Saturday to Mark Hamilton (IRE) (16-5), Alistair Ritchie (SCO) (10-7) and Angus Barnes (IRE) (12-9), before a 14-10 loss to Janis McLaughlin (IRE) in the first round of the Shield.

Ian finishes the season 203rd in the world rankings with 122.50 points and 129th in the Order of Merit standings with 110 points.

The day before the Masters, the local bowlers also competed in the Belfast Open Pairs.

Saltash Kernow’s Ian and Fay Crossett, Duloe’s Alan and Caroline Trubshaw and Duloe’s Mark Slack, who teamed with Welshman Anthony Mills, all reached the last 32 of the Plate competition before bowing out.

All of the bowlers were back in action over the Bank Holiday weekend, this time travelling up to South Devon and Torquay to take part in the English Short Mat Bowling Association and Torquay Leisure Hotels Top Team competition.

On Saturday Duloe finished second in a very tight Group Two where Infinity (West Sussex) finished top with 19 points, two ahead of Duloe.

Carey (Dorset) were third, also on 17 points, while Burtonbury were last with just a solitary point.

Duloe lost 6-3 to Infinity, thrashed Burtonbury 9-0 and edged past Carey 5-4.

However, their run ended in the quarter-finals as they lost 5-4 to Hazelbury Bryan from Dorset.