St Andrews bowler Sam Stocker has been named in England's under-25s team for the British Isles Indoor International Series in Glasgow in February.

It’s third time lucky for the 22-year-old from Weston, who was selected after an excellent performance in his third international trial on December 3.

What had made his selection even more special is that, for the trial, he used the bowls he had inherited from his late grandfather Mike Stocker, one of Weston’s top bowlers for 40 years.

Sam, who has been bowling since his early teens, has won the Somerset indoor under-25 championship for the last two years and has been knocking on the door of international recognition for some time.

His dad Lee, who also plays for St Andrews indoors, said, “I was at the trial with Sam and he did really well. We are all over the moon about his selection.”

The father and son have also had a successful week on the green. They teamed up with Dave Fairhurst to beat a Clevedon trio 17-15 in the national triples. Then the same trio and Rich Withers beat Clevedon again in the national fours.

In that game, they were two shots behind with two ends to go, but fought back brilliantly to win 18-16.