Last updated 15:20, Thursday, 06 March 2008

DANNY MAY clinched the English junior singles title at Basingstoke.

Danny May

The Cumbria Indoor Bowls Club star had his hardest game in the first round when he was held at one set all before going through on the tie break against Michael West of West Berkshire.

May followed that win with a comfortable victory over Paul Dickinson from the Isle of Wight and continued in good form on the second day with further comfortable wins in the quarter and semi-finals.

In the final he met 15-year-old Jamie Walker of Wellingborough and though bowling with the same consistency as in his previous rounds May found his younger opponent getting everything just right and Walker took the first set.

The second set however went to May very decisively and helped by a shade of luck on the first end of the tie break May went on to become a deserved national champion following up Stuart Airey’s win in this event way back in 1995. May will now represent England in the British Isles Championships next week where he has a preliminary round tie against the Channel Island’s champion and will also be taking part in the Junior World Singles.

DENNY CUP: Cumbria Indoor Bowls Club will be making the trip to Bedford on Saturday for the final stages of the national inter club knockout for the Denny Cup.

EIBA CHAMPIONSHIPS: The area final of the fours and singles were completed at Carlisle at the weekend. In the fours the strong combination of Paul Barlow, Ian Gallagher, Gavin Taylor and Stephen Farish were expected to make it through to the finals at Nottingham and duly did so but it was never easy. Eddie Murray, Ron Gass, John Wills and Rae Graham battled determinedly and for a good part of the match looked as though they might well just shade it. Four shots in two ends gave them a 13-9 lead after thirteen ends and they still led by one after sixteen had been played. By eighteen ends Farish led 15-14 and it took a good last delivery from Farish in what had been a rather subdued performance to convert shot down to plus two to give them a 17-14 lead. A further conversion on the penultimate end gave them two shots to seal the game.

In the singles Gavin Taylor had a chance to make it three appearances at the nationals but a sluggish start set the pattern for the game as Mark Nanson picked up five shots in the first two ends. Taylor came back but he failed to sparkle and Nanson soon went on to lead 15-7 and then 19-10. At that point Taylor saved game with his final delivery and Nanson in attempting to make a quick kill gave away a rather ill judged count of four to put Taylor back in with a sniff of a chance. A further two and three singles with just a single for Nanson saw Taylor reduce the gap to 20-19 but just as it looked as though he might steal the game a loose end saw Nanson draw a good shot with his final delivery and with Taylor unable to recover it was Mark who will make the trip to Nottingham.

EWIBA FINALS: The Ladies take centre stage at Loddon Vale IBC this week and Karen Edmondson will represent Cumbria IBC in the singles and Janice Gower and Eleanor Gass will be our representatives in the pairs.