17-year-old helps Harrogate trio reach national bowling finals

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A Harrogate bowling trio will play in the national finals today — with the help of a 17-year-old.

Lee Coutts, Ian Brickley, and 17-year-old Tom Bielby will represent the Harrogate Bowling Club at the Aviva National Finals Blue Riband Men’s Triples event at Leamington Spa.

Bielby began bowling when he was nine-years-old with his grandad. After covid, he started to play for Yorkshire Juniors and the Harrogate Indoor Bowling Club first team.

Since then, he has reached the last 16 in the under-18s National Singles Championship, become the Yorkshire under-18s champion, and trialled for the England under-18s.

Bielby is currently juggling bowling with his A-Levels, which he is studying at Harrogate Grammar School.

The team qualified for the national finals by becoming the Yorkshire County Men’s Triples champions in July.

The Harrogate trio started in the competition as one of 2307 teams nationally, and has now reached the last 32.

The other 31 teams have all won their respective county leagues, too.

It is a four-day event, starting on August 23 and ending on August 26, and is one of the highlights of the English flat green bowls calendar. Thirty-two teams will be reduced to a two-team final by the end of the event, which will be played on Tuesday.

Bielby, Coutts and Brickley will kick off their tournament tomorrow at 4.30pm.

If they make it to the final, they will start at 12.45pm on Tuesday (August 26).