Barnard Castle Bowls Club
Monday Evening League
WITH the sun blazing down the crowd could hardly contain itself as the Monday leaguers stepped out for week eight.
The game between Trio Nova and the Lavender Ladies produced a league first when June Parkin started with Gillian Harle for the Lavs, stepped down at halftime to give Ann Hodgson a run out, then played the second half for the opposition, partnering Brian Carter after Rene Armstrong had peaked early.
If you managed to follow that then you may be interested to learn that the Lavs won 10-7.
The Pink Panthers managed to hang on to all of their players. Mary Lambert went the whole hog and Ann Hodgson made way for Denise Dent at the break.
Their opponents the Young’ns had got a bus up for all their players, kicking off with Brian Smurthwaite and Bill Carter before bringing on Bob Lockyer and Alan Gowland at the break when they were 5-3 up.
They won the next end then stuck on six for three ends allowing the Pinks to draw level. However, they thought they could beat that and stuck on six for four ends, eventually losing out 11-6.
With Angus Dowson on an OAP break at Weston-Super-Mare it was left to Neil Bailey and Frank Ashmore to try to restore the Men in Black’s flagging season. Their opponents, Alan Wearmouth and Denis Richards, from the Odd Bowls have also seen better days but opened up a 4-1 lead and looked on for a big win.
However the MiB had different ideas, taking the next three ends to get to the break at fours apiece. Unfortunately, with too many biscuits curtailing their momentum, the Oddies bounced back and in a closely contested second half it was all square with one to play, which Frank and Neil snuck to give them the game 9-8.
The top of the table clash between the Bold Eagles and Wall and Watters was, as expected, a tight affair. It was 3-3 after six ends before the Boldies just got their noses in front by the break 5-3.
John Robinson was reduced to washing up, putting a smile on Graham Moore who along with Colin Watson carried on in the second half. Neil and Stephen went with the cool collective approach and pulled back to 5-5 after ten and 6-6 after 12 ends before the wheels came off and they scraped home with seven points while the Boldies, with the aid of the joker, reached 10 points.
There seems to be no stopping Team Kryptonite, who tonight fielded Tony Barkshire, our short bowl specialist, and David Gurnhill. Using the same tactics as last week they went in at halftime 7-2 up against the Alwyn Brothers featuring Alwyn Dowson and Paul ‘Alwyn’ Craddock.
TK’s mentor decided to sit it out putting his faith in Tony and David’s ability to keep it going and wasn’t disappointed as they surged into a 13-3 lead with one to play. The Brothers were looking like losing that before Paul, who had saved his best bowl until last, drew the shot including the Joker to end on five points.
The Likely Lads have settled into a steady rhythm with Peter Shovlin and Michael Littlefair producing some decent bowls. Their opponents, the Boys in Blue, are going through a bad patch and tonight was no exception, going four down on the four short ends.
A bit of a revival ensued taking them to the break just 3-5 down. Unfortunately, things went from bad to worse with the Lads sticking to their task reaching 12 points with the help of the joker while the Boys limped home with five points.
Having the top spot to themselves are the Bold Eagles on 84 points but they’re looking over their shoulder as Team Kryptonite are coming up on the rail two adrift.
Meanwhile, on desolation row, the Pink Panthers are getting the cold shoulder with 51 points.
JT
Men’s Vets League
IT was knockout week. The B team had got into the spirit of things and were knocked out in the first round whereas the A team hadn’t quite grasped the concept of knockouts and had progressed to the second round where they met Darlington North Lodge.
In a bit of a one sided affair Barney won 76-39 and go into the semi-finals where they meet Darlington South Park.
Men’s Darlington and
District League
THE team were away at Darlington Hundens and won two rinks by one shot, lost one rink by three shots and lost the other one by quite a few more.
Hundens won the long game 88-72 and the match 3-2.
Charity Triples
EIGHT teams of three slogged it out in decent weather in a round-robin format of five games with ten points available.
There were the usual hard luck stories and lucky shots but at the end of the day Frank Ashmore, Alan Wearmouth and Colin Watson won with ten points.
There were two teams tied on seven points but once shots difference were taken into account Angus Dowson, Denis Richards and John Tallentire sneaked into runners-up spot.
All entry and raffle money goes to the charity of the winners choice and £150 was donated to Cancer Research.
Ladies’ bowls
IN the torrid heat of Bedale, the ladies toiled in the Thursday Afternoon League.
Ursula Munnerley, Denise Dent and Gillian Harle won 21-16. Ann Hodgson, Rene Armstrong and Mary Lambert had a close game and came out on top 18-15.
With our third rink again only fielding two players, Bedale took the long game 56-46.33 and the league points were shared.
In the club competition for the Blenkinsopp Salver, Mary Lambert played consistently well to take the trophy. She goes forward to the Darlington and District Evening League Champion of Champions event.
JP
