Last updated 11:14, Thursday, 13 March 2008

CUMBRIA Indoor Bowls club struck silver with a championship double.

TITLE No1: The women’s under-60 double rink stunned the fancied Egham side from Surrey at Basingstoke.

TITLE No2: The men’s Denny Cup team completed a memorable eight days when they beat Kingsthorpe in the semi-final and Peterborough in the final at Bedford on Sunday.

In the Lingford Trophy, the Cumbria girls came out fighting from the off and went on to score a 19-shot win.

Linda Rose, Catherine Robson, Penny Peile and Janice Gower did a lot of the early damage and scored no less than three sixes in their game, the last of which came on the 17th end and was the final nail in Egham’s coffin, the rink score being 30-15.

On the other rink Susan Devlin Diane Fieldhouse, Margaret Docherty and Karen Edmondson were involved in a stern tussle but after trailing 12-9 at one point they too came out on top and won 17-13 to seal a glorious victory.

In the Denny Club, Cumbria IBC’s men made the trip to Lawson Park IBC in Bedford for the semi-final of the Denny Cup against Northampton side Kingsthorpe, the side which beat Cumbria in the final of this competition back in 2002. Kingsthorpe are still a useful side but on Sunday Cumbria IBC produced a good solid semi-final performance and led throughout to score a thoroughly efficient 17 shot victory.

Steven Farish was in the sort of form which befits a top England player skipping his four to a massive 30-11 win over international colleague Neil Mckee while Stuart Airey despite not being 100% fit skipped his four to an 18-10 win over Jim Mckee. Trevor Taylor drew with the new Over 60s Singles Champion Mick Sharpe seventeen all and after a torrid first half Gavin Taylor came back to lose 24-14 against Vernon Geary.

In the other semi-final Peterborough showed that their win in the quarter final against three times winners Egham was no fluke when they beat the better fancied Nottingham by eighteen shots.

In the final Peterborough fancied their chances but as so often happens experience is a major factor in finals and Cumbria made just the start they wanted and by seven ends the game was as good as over.

Cumbria produced almost certainly their best team performance for quite some time and basically Peterborough were never really in the hunt.

By halfway the gap had risen to thirty shots and the final winning margin of 98-53 could only be regarded as a true reflection of the two side’s abilities on the day.

Kevin Harrison, Ron Gass, Paul Barlow and Steven Farish again led the way with a 29-10 victory over Jeff Newson while Rick Gallagher, Mark Nanson, Ian Gallagher and Stuart Airey weighed in with a 23-12 victory over Stuart Popple. Eddie Murray, Steven Green, Rae Graham and Gavin Taylor beat Martin Durber 21-13 and Danny May, John Bell, Craig Docherty and Trevor Taylor completed the win by beating Ean Morton 25-18.There were 264 Clubs entered the Denny Cup this year and for Cumbria IBC to come out on top for the fifth time in just 13 years is a great achievement. In that same period there have also been two final defeats making a total of seven final appearances which again underlines the Club’s strength over a fairly long period.

COUNTY TRIPLES: The County Triples was played at Dalston last weekend and ran very smoothly. Once again it was a disappointing entry and the future of these competitions may well be discussed at a county meeting in Carlisle next Tuesday evening.

After day one the semi-finals took place on Sunday and both Peck Orchard and David Balfour scored comfortable wins over Alan McGuiness and David Taylor. In the final it was a much closer tussle and it took an extra end before Sid Brough, Grant Allan and Pec k Orchard came out on top 17-16. T

nCUMBRIA Indoor Bowls Club committee met earlier this week to discuss leagues and competitions for next season. It has been agreed that next year there will be a new Open Over Sixty Pairs competition and subject to demand a new singles league on Friday at 4.10. The new singles will have one or two interesting rule innovations, one of which is that no markers required and it is hoped that there will be a good response.