Twelve games gone at the Gravells Welsh Open and already five seeds have been sent tumbling in what is turning out to be another nightmare tournament for the sport's elite.
Only seven seeds made it to the last 16 at the World Indoor Singles, with only the fourth, fifth, sixth and 16th bowlers making it to the quarter-final stage, and the new broom which swept all asunder at Potters is back in action down on the south coast of Wales this week.
World champion Greg Harlow was not only beaten by Israeli 51-year-old Zvika Hadar, he was humiliated – a 9-0 whitewash in the first set was just incredible and although Harlow pulled level in the second set, Hadar saw him off in the tie-break. Talk about a case of after the Lord Mayor's Show.
Also gone are last year's winner Robert Chisholm, who made a woeful defence of his title against Australian Gerard Beath, while sixth seed David Gourlay – a quarter-finalist at Potters – contrived to lose to South African Bobby Donnelly despite winning the first 10 ends of the match. He was ahead 9-0 6-1, but an amazing fightback from Donnelly saw him take the match into a tie-break despite winning just four ends and then he cleaned up 2-0 in the best of three ends lottery.
Also out are Andy Thomson (8th seed) and Les Gillett (15) and Kelvin Kerkow (12) could follow them on Monday. The popular Australian meets Norfolk's TIM STONE for a place in the second round and there is a suggestion that jet-lag could play a part in Kerkow's downfall.
He nipped home to play a Premier League match for his club after bowing out at Potters earlier this month and it remains to be seen how much the long journey back has taken out of him. Stone, whose home club is Acle, is a quality player and is well known among the bowls fraternity, and despite being given a bowls lesson by Alex Marshall in the second round of the World Indoor Singles a fortnight or so ago, he could give Kerkow a lot to think about to such an effect that he could send him crashing and is well worth getting stuck into at 7-4 (various).
Jamie Hanlan won one of two Tour cards for this season, along with Nick Brett, and that guaranteed him entry to all three ranking events in the calendar, but he has been simply outclassed in both the Scottish Open and World Indoor Singles and he doesn't look a worthwhile proposition today despite facing an out-of-form MARK ROYAL.
Stowmarket bowls shop owner Royal has enjoyed a terrific couple of seasons, so much so that he he powered up to second in the world rankings, missing out on the top spot by just a point. But since hitting that position his game has dropped off totally and he hasn't won a game since triumphing in the second round in this event last year.
But he hasn't become a bad player overnight and this is just the sort of game to get him back on the winning trail and he is definitely the choice at 4-11 with Stan James.
SIMON SKELTON kicked off the first round and he gets the second round underway against the giant-killing Beath. Like Kerkow, Beath is a Premier League player Down Under and will fancy his chances of defeating the 15th seed, but Skelton reached the final of this event last year and previous form at the Swansea venue is normally a good gauge of form and he is the confident selection at 4-9 with Betfred.
It certainly is no foregone conclusion that Skelton will win, but I just think his experience will see him through, the lack of which saw Chisholm lose out to Beath previously despite being the defending champion.
