YOUNG indoor bowler Ben Grover is enjoying an outstanding season with real hopes of achieving further success in the coming months. The 16-year-old, who plays at the Oyster Indoor Bowls Club at Whitstable, is through to the last 32 of both the national under-25 competition and the Kent County senior men's championship.

He is also in the semi-finals of the county under-17 competition and reserve for the Kent Under-25 team who are through to the semis of the national double rink championship. Grover, who lives in Whitstable, has been playing bowls since the age of eight and admits he has been taken aback by his progress this season.

The Herne Bay High School pupil, who is reigning junior singlesÕ champion at the Oyster, explained: "I have been very surprised with how well it's gone. I have been selected regularly for the Oyster's Denny Cup team which is something I did not expect."

Grover has come through four rounds in the national under-25 competition with one of his scalps being 22-year-old Oyster clubmate Grant Allen, a former county under-25 champion.

The youngster has also beaten opponents from Betteshanger, Margate and Mote Park to earn a place in the final stages in Nottingham on February 9-10. Grover has played two matches in the county men's championship and in his second defeated experienced Oyster team-mate David Ferguson, a semi-finalist in the same competition the year before.

Grover has yet to start his campaign in the Kent under-25 event, but is well on course to regain his county under-17 title, which he won two years ago. Last year he did not enter because the dates clashed with the under-25 competition.

Three of Grover's Oyster clubmates reached the last four of the Kent under-17 girls' competition, with Sian Gordon now through to meet Vicki Foot, of White Oak, Swanley, in the final. Stephanie Crates and Susan Walder were both beaten semi-finalists.