The County Durham Open 2026 – a BTBA UK Championship Tour 2026 Event

The County Durham Open 2026 took place on 2 August 2026 at Sunderland Riverside Bowl.

Report provided by Tournament Manager Anth Robson.

🏆 𝗖𝗢𝗨𝗡𝗧𝗬 𝗗𝗨𝗥𝗛𝗔𝗠 𝗢𝗣𝗘𝗡 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲 – 𝗗𝗔𝗡𝗜𝗘𝗟 𝗦𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗡 𝗧𝗔𝗞𝗘𝗦 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗧𝗜𝗧𝗟𝗘! 🏆

The BTBA Tour headed north to Riverside Bowling Sunderland, for the County Durham Open last weekend, with bowlers battling through four rounds for the title.

🎳 𝗥𝗢𝗨𝗡𝗗 𝟭

Scoring proved challenging from the start, although Emily Grose sparked initial hope with a 223 in game one.

High scores remained elusive until game three, when Colin Argyle found his rhythm, rolling back-to-back games of 211 and 224. With handicap, that gave him a huge 𝟱𝟮𝟵 𝘁𝘄𝗼-𝗴𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗯𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗸 – a score nobody could catch and enough to win the Storm Bowling 𝗯𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗼𝗳 𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗶𝗰𝗲, kindly donated by Bowltech UK Limited and Strikeline Pro Shop. 🎳🔥

By the end of the morning squad, Colin sat comfortably at the top of the leaderboard with a total of 1388, followed by John Strettle (1272) and Adam Shrubb (1268). These three would prove to be the only bowlers from Squad 1 to secure a spot in the top 16.

In the second squad, local favourite Matty Clayton exploded out of the blocks with consecutive games of 223 and 235, but despite the strong start, both he and fellow locals Mick Ince (510) and Gary Johnson (513) fell just short of taking the two-game Storm ball challenge.

When qualifying was complete, Gary Johnson had taken the No.1 seed with 1400, followed by Colin Argyle on 1388 and Mick Ince on 1359.

At the other end of the cut, Jack Hughes grabbed the 16th and final place with 1251.

🔥 𝗥𝗢𝗨𝗡𝗗 𝟮

The leaderboard changed dramatically as Daniel Shinn made his move, climbing from 10th to 1st on the back of an excellent 𝟲𝟴𝟳 𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗰𝗵 𝘀𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀.

Meanwhile, Carole Orange began an unrelenting march up the leaderboard too, jumping from 15th to 8th, while Adam Shrubb secured the final qualifying position for Round 3 in 12th place.

🔥 𝗥𝗢𝗨𝗡𝗗 𝟯

Daniel wasn’t giving up the lead, but behind him things were getting incredibly tight.

Rich Tooze moved into second, Gary Johnson sat third and Team England Junior Hannah Crowe consolidated her position amongst the leaders.

Carole continued her steady rise up the standings into fifth, while Mick Ince narrowly snagged the sixth and final spot for the championship round by just 4 pins from Colin Argyle. 😮

That left just 𝟰𝟱 𝗽𝗶𝗻𝘀 𝘀𝗲𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝘀𝗶𝘅𝘁𝗵 going into the final three games.

🏆 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗙𝗜𝗡𝗔𝗟

Daniel held a commanding lead, but the battle behind him went right to the wire.

Carole completed a fantastic climb through the field to take 2nd place, edging Gary by just four pins – whose dramatic final ball will quietly go unmentioned! 🤫😄

Rich Tooze finished 4th, Hannah Crowe took 5th and an exhausted Mick Ince (who looked like he might need a quick sip of oxygen!) completed the Top 6.

But out in front there was no catching Daniel Shinn.

Daniel finished on 2997, winning the 2026 County Durham Open by an impressive 97 pins. 🏆👏

🥇 Daniel Shinn – 2997
🥈 Carole Orange – 2900
🥉 Gary Johnson – 2896
4️⃣ Rich Tooze – 2880
5️⃣ Hannah Crowe – 2837
6️⃣ Mick Ince – 2811

👏 Congratulations to Daniel on a superb victory, to Colin on winning the Storm Bowling ball, and to everyone who competed and cashed.

A massive thank you to Anthony Robson for running the tournament, to Riverside Bowling and their fantastic staff, and to Bowltech UK Limited and Strikeline Pro Shop for their support of the event and the BTBA Tour.

We look forward to seeing everyone back at the County Durham Open in 2027! 🎳

— Anth Robson

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