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DEBUTANT ROARS INTO THE QUARTER FINALS




County Durham's Paul Hartley, a member of the South Shields Vipers club, became the first qualifier to reach this year's quarter-finals of the Ambassador Cruise Line World Open Singles championship, where he will join David Gourlay MBE, Rob Paxton and Les Gillett who are all players in the top sixteen on the WBT Ranking List and have already cemented their last eight stage placement.


Hartley, a 50 year old driving instructor from the Peterlee area, won the Hartlepool qualifier after several attempts in the various qualifying competitions around the country. This realised his dream to play Potters Bowls in the World Indoor Singles Championship.


In Round 1 he took the scalp of 2023 champion Jamie Walker, to book a Round 2 spot against World and Commonwealth gold medallist Colleen Piketh from South Africa, who was the only woman in the field this year.


He started well, and steadily tightened his grip on the match, taking the first set 9-3.


He gave the jack to his opponent at the start of the second set, and whilst he had delivered a longish length to play to in the first set, Colleen opted for her favoured shot length.


Her strategy seemed to work when she held a treble, but with his last delivery, Hartley drew in a valuable single to deny Piketh. He employed the same tactics as he had in the opening set, to go on and win the match 9-3, 12-3.


Smiling broadly later he said, "Straight away I found the length and weight I wanted and was comfortable on the rink.


"It's always been an aim of mine to participate in this event, so I'm happy with what I've done so far, and I don't care which player I meet in the quarter-finals. They'll all be difficult, so I will simply try to focus on my own game".


He will return to play on Friday 24th January at 3pm against the winner of the Round 2 match at 10am on Thursday 23rd January, between qualifier Martin Heitzman and twice champion Mark Dawes.


RESULT

WORLD OPEN SINGLES CHAMPIONSHIP Round 2 Cont'd

(Wednesday 22nd January 2025)

Paul Hartley (Eng/Q) bt Colleen Piketh (South Africa/Q) 2-0 (9-3, 12-3)




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