NEIL SMITH just missed out on winning the Open Singles Circuit Grand Final at Wellingborough Indoor Bowls Club last weekend.

It was the second year in a row that the Swindon Westlecot indoor star had fallen at the final hurdle in the Grand Prix Final.

In October 2014 he lost in the final promoted by planetbowls.com on the last end of a tie-breaker to England senior and junior international Shaun Jones.

This time, after being rebranded from planetbowls to OSC, Smith again suffered heartache, losing 2-1 on a tie-breaker in the final to another England international Louis Ridout (Torquay United) to miss out on the £1,500 top prize.

Smith lost the first set by three shots 8-5 but hit back in the second to win it 6-4 and force a decider.

The first two legs were shared but Smith’s luck ran out in the deciding third leg as Ridout grabbed the shot and victory to leave Smith to curse his luck again.

“It was a really good day,” said Smith. “I am very pleased to have played as well as I did and done as well as I did with having to organise the tournament as well.

“My game in the quarter-finals against number one seed Steve Tuohy was a great game and one of the best I have played for a long time.

“I had to dig deep early on, particularly against Martin Heitzman, to win on tie breakers but then settled down and played well against Steve (Tuohy) and Martin (Selway).

“Yes, it was disappointing to lose in the final again but the blow was softened as we split prize money - £1,150 for winner and £1,100 for me.”

The Grand Prix final shootout at Wellingborough featured the top 32 players on the planetbowls.com rankings list last season (2014/15), where Smith had finished in 11th, playing for a prize pot of £3,750.

On the way to the final, Smith came from a set down to beat Clarrie Dunbar Open winner and number 28 seed Dolphin Poole’s Carl Fountain 2-1 (8-11, 11-1, 2-1) in the first round and followed that up with another 2-1 success over 22nd seed Ipswich’s Heitzman, coming from game down in the second set to win 2-1 (3-8, 7-5, 2-1).

With a superb performance Smith eliminated top seed Steve Tuohy (Egham) in the quarter-finals 1.5-0.5 (8-6, 6-6) and in the semi-finals accounted for number three seed and North Wilts Open winner Martin Selway (Islwyn, near Caerphilly, Wales) in two sets (8-3 and 6-5).

Westlecot’s Ian Jefferies, who finished 35th in the rankings to miss out on an automatic final spot, received a late call-up for the event, but lost his first-round match 2-0 (4-7, 1-9) to Danny Brown.