High-profile players set to descend on Fareham's Palmerston IBC venue for prestigious EIBA Open singles circuit event

The Fareham-based venue will host a stage of the EIBA (English Indoor Bowling Association) Open singles circuit competition over the weekend of April 9-10.

In the high profile event, some of the top bowlers head to clubs across England in separate stages of the knock-out format event, with the eventual grand final staged at the famous Potters Bowls indoor arena for the top-16 ranked players who amass the highest total of points over the individual stagings.

Palmerston IBC had been due to host a stage of the national competition for the first time last year, only for the coronavirus pandemic to prevent the club from doing so.

But now all at the Fareham-based indoor arena are excited for the bowling eyes to be on them for a weekend at least in April.

‘It’s a fantastic honour for the club. We applied for it and several of the players (in the open singles) have played at the club so they know the club,’ said one of the Palmerston IBC EIBA Open singles circuit staging organisers Neil Roderick.

‘It’ll be a great weekend and the facilities there (at Palmerston) are really excellent. We’ve had top county competitions and what have you, we’ve had some internationals - players who have played in the Commonwealth Games - have played for their counties.

‘We’re one of the premium indoor bowling clubs, certainly in Hampshire, if not the area as well.’

Roderick revealed a final entry list is yet to be confirmed for the Palmerston IBC leg of the Open singles circuit event.

He added: ‘It’s open to all people, male, female, young or old, disabled and it’s been taken over this year by the EIBA which is the English Indoor Bowls Association.

‘There are likely to be some of the top players, there could even be a couple of world-ranked players, we’re not sure of the exact entry at the moment. This is for top international and national players.’