NEIL SMITH celebrated his call-up to the England indoor side for the mixed Test match against Wales at the end of September with two successes outdoors last week at the Southampton Open.

The Wootton Bassett bowler, an indoor member of Westlecot, reigned supreme in the singles but also lifted the triples title with two Channel Islands international bowlers.

“What a week - I arrived at Southampton Sports centre on Monday afternoon to find myself on one of the heaviest and trickiest greens of the year,” he explained.

“I was 20-12 down against Jamie Hughes on his own green and it wasn’t looking good. However, after a 3-2-3 (run), I was 20-20 but a game down again with one bowl left and I drew a back toucher with my last to win.”

After that scare, results improved considerably as the next day at Atherley, Smith beat last year’s champion Rob Palser 21-10 then in the third round, thumped Brian Baxendale 21-5 at Banister Park.

On Thursday, Smith beat Keith Charbit Middleton 21-18 and in Friday’s quarter-final, he accounted for tournament-organiser Kerry Clements, winning 21-7.

Saturday morning saw Smith record a 21-12 victory over Lee Harris (Bromley) in the semi-final and he narrowly triumphed 21-20 over Dave Richardson (Popes Mead, Sussex) to claim the trophy.

“I was always behind in the game,” said Smith. “I believed all week after the win on Monday I would win it, so never gave it up. I drew a three in to make it 18-20, followed by another drawn three on the next to win.”

Smith teamed up successfully in the triples during the week with Malcolm De Sousa and Scott Ruderham from Jersey.

The former had featured in the Commonwealth Games and World Championships and Ruderham had been selected for the Atlantic Rim games in Cyprus this year, and Smith’s trio beat Gary Squires’ trip 18-16 in the final.

“You could say I was quite happy with my team-mates,” added Smith.

“We played some great games during the week, which included an eight-end 24-2 win at Banister Park in the round two and in all, we won six matches.