KIRSTY Clarke, 16, of Beccles Indoor Bowls Club, capped a memorable fortnight of bowls when she qualified for the U25 National Championships being held at Melton Mowbray Bowls Club at the end of November.

KIRSTY Clarke, 16, of Beccles Indoor Bowls Club, capped a memorable fortnight of bowls when she qualified for the U25 National Championships being held at Melton Mowbray Bowls Club at the end of November.

This followed on from the previous weekend when she was selected to play for England U18 in the Home International Series held in County Antrim, Northern Ireland.

Two teams from England, Scotland, Wales and one each from Ireland and the Channel Isles competed in two round robin groups on the Saturday with the group winners and runner- ups playing each other on Sunday.

Each team consisted of a singles, a pairs and a triples and Kirsty, playing in the triples helped her team through to the final, where they met the other England team.

Despite winning their triples they finished as runners-up as both the singles and pairs were lost.

Kirsty delivered some fantastic bowls over the weekend and her triple won four out of the five games they played.

Last weekend she travelled to the Norfolk Bowling Club in Norwich to compete in the area qualifiers for the National U25 Championships.

Her first-round draw couldn't have been tougher as she was up against the reigning National Champion and England international, Rebecca Field.

Kirsty lost the first set 2-8 but began to find her rhythm towards the end and carried this on into the second set. This she won 7-4, taking the game into a three end tie-breaker. Rebecca won the first end and Kirsty replied by winning the second and as the tension mounted Kirsty held her nerve to take shot in the third and progress to the next round.

Here she met Rebecca Carter, the reigning Norfolk U25 singles outdoor champion. Kirsty built a lead in the first set but allowed her opponent to come back and tie the scores going into the final end. Again Kirsty held her nerve to deliver four perfect bowls and take the set 11-9.

In the second set she showed no mercy and powered to victory by a comfortable margin, 9-4. This took her to the final, where she met her club-mate and friend Louise Catchpole. Kirsty then played two perfect sets of bowls, completely over-powering Louise with some brilliant drawing woods and on a couple of occasions a superb running wood.

She never looked in any danger and won the match 9-4, 15-1.

She will now go on to the national finals, where 16 of the country's top bowlers will be competing.