NEIL Smith and youngest daughter Katy have made a brilliant start to the new 2014/15 indoor bowls season.

They have qualified to compete at Potters (Norfolk) in the world pairs championship event next January.

Smith and his 17-year-old Katy, an England U18 triallist, booked their place with a magnificent display in the world pairs qualifiers in Bournemouth last Sunday.

They registered a 2-0 victory over fellow Wiltshire outdoor players Tom Warner and Nick Revell, who play indoors out of Bournemouth after switching from Five Rivers (Salisbury).

The Smiths won the first set 9-3 and followed up with a 10-2 in the second.

After a first round bye, in the quarter-finals the duo beat junior England international Connor Cinato (Desborough, Northants) and his partner, Smith’s eldest daughter Lucy, 19, who made her women’s U25 international debut last season, 2-1.

The semi-final against Surrey duo Robert Palser and James Shillingford (Camberley) also went to a tie-breaker, the Smiths cruising home 2-0 before blitzing Revell and Warner to seal a place at Potters.

A day earlier, Neil saw his bid to reach the world singles at Potters end in the semi-finals on a tie breaker.

In the first round, he had a bye, while Katy beat Stephen Ireland (Preston) 2-1 (5-6, 6-3, 2-0) but Lucy went out 2-1 to doubles partner Cinato.

Neil beat Revell (Bournemouth) 2-0 (8-6, 6-2) – Katy losing 2-0 (6-3, 9-8) to Steven Mead (Foxhills) – and saw off Isle of Wight’s junior international Travis Mellor 2-1 (7-2, 3-8, 2-0) in the quarter-finals.

But in the last four he went down 2-1 (4-9, 7-1, 0-2) to Martin Puckett (Moonfleet 2000, Weymouth).

“We had three games to qualify for Potters and won them all - Katy was brilliant all day and we deserved to qualify,’’ Neil said of his pairs success.

Smith will be missing from the Westlecot men’s Wessex League match tomorrow as he will be competing in the second planetbowls.com open singles tournament at Thanet (Margate), together with Lucy and Katy.