Wymondham’s Mark Linsdell failed to qualify from his group into the main cup competition in the SMPT Irish Masters at Belfast IBC. Wins against Irish bowlers Ciaran Green and Tanya Armstrong were not enough as he lost his other three group games to finish fourth and qualify for the Plate knock-outs. His first opponent in the Plate was Gethin Edwards of Wales who he beat 9-3 but he lost 11-6 to Jordan Rankin of Ireland in the Last 32 stage. Surprise Irish Open casualities in the group stages were Irish ace Cecil Dillon who finished third in Group 17 and Swedish pair Christer Nordin & Joel Hagar who both finished third in their respective groups. The first knock-out round of the main competition also provided surprises as Mark Beattie of Ireland went out 11-5 to fellow Irish bowler Joanne McIntyre and P.J Gallagher of Ireland lost 8-6 to England’s Steve Burrows. The second knock-out round continued to see star names crash out as World Ranked number 4 James Trott of England lost to Noel Graham while World Ranked number 3 Nigel Nicholls was beaten 10-5 by Hannah Cochrane. Joseph Beattie of Ireland also suffered a shock 10-3 defeat against Alan Graham. Then World Ranked Number 1 Jonathan Payne of Belgium lost 11-6 to Ed Sawbridge of England and in the final shock of the round Gary McNabb lost 9-6 to Rachel Cochrane. The final was an all Irish affair with Raymond Stubbs beating Ian Hobson 10-5.