Craig wins British bowls title
Last updated 21:58, Thursday, 20 March 2008
CRAIG Docherty, Cumbria Indoor Bowls Club’s current National Singles Champion, has now landed the British Isles Single Championship.
He won the title at Perth last week when beating Ireland’s Jeremy Henry in the semi-final 21-13 and Ian Merrien of the Channel Islands by the same score in the final.
Docherty, the only Cumbrian to win the indoor singles, had the misfortune to miss out on the chance of defending his national title when a back problem forced him to concede in the area semi-final. So last week’s achievement will be a fair consolation for the disappointment he suffered then.
In what has been a purple patch for the Carlisle-based club, Danny May, the current junior singles champion, almost made it a fantastic double for both Cumbria and England.
He too won two games at Perth but, after beating Malcolm De Sousa of the Channel Islands and Keith Padgett of Ireland, he was beaten in the final by Stewart Anderson Scotland.
England won the International Series which also took place at Perth despite losing the final game to host country Scotland.
England beat Wales and Ireland easily but Scotland suffered at surprise defeat to the Irish which meant that they had to beat England by over 50 shots to win the series.
They did manage a win but only by single figures to leave England comfortably on top. Cumbria Indoor Bowls Club had Craig Docherty and Stephen Farish in the side and they played no small part in the overall win when they finished the three games undefeated.
Cumbria Indoor Bowls Club’s popular long standing tournament prove to be another winner on Sunday when over eight players took part. It was eventually won by Karen Edmondson, Jim Hynds. John Fieldhouse and David McManus.
McManus made a great start to the tournament when picking up a maximum seven points in the first game and though hard pressed throughout by several challengers his four held on well to win finishing the six game programme with a total of 37 points, just two ahead of last year’s winning rink skipped by Rick Gallagher.
Gavin Taylor’s four finished in third place while Ron McMath finished fourth with Bob Au and Cindy Edmondson occupying fifth and six positions.
It was refreshing to see a good crowd stay behind to see sponsors representative Rob Kilgour present the prizes to the winning rinks.
At a meeting on Tuesday evening it was decided that Cumbria will enter the new national over 60 team competition.
The new event will be played on similar lines to the outdoor Middleton Cup with three or four league games followed by a knockout competition for the group winners.
The group league games will be played as three rinks at home three away and will be played mid week, while the knockout games will be played on one neutral venue.
The composition of the group leagues will not be known until the number of counties entering is known but it seems likely that Cumbria will face Durham, Lancashire, Yorkshire and possibly Northumberland.
The future of the County competitions was also discussed but no final decision was taken and it was agreed that competitors will have the chance to make their views known at the annual general meeting which this year will be held at a later date in September.
The future of the Over 50 Triples League is also likely to be considered then.
The northeast Bowls Club returned to Carlisle after a short absence for a friendly match on Saturday and all who took part had an enjoyable afternoon.
The home side proved to be in good form and won on all six rinks for an overall 64 shot victory.
John Story led the way skipping his four of Joyce Story, Mattie Addison and Les Gardiner to a 22 shot win while Simon Kerridge won by 16, Paul Campbell by 13, Brian Patterson and Colin Jones by six each and Ron Kirby completed the winning streak with a single shot victory.
