D Taylor

Last updated 01:00, Thursday, 07 June 2007

bowls

By David Taylor

CUMBRIA’s Middleton and Alsop Cup teams were in action on Saturday and both sides got the county off to a good start with excellent home wins.

Cumbria faced Yorkshire at Wigton on Saturday and emerged with a splendid 18-4 win.

The win was not unexpected but this was a good performance. Cumbria have been weakened by the loss of a number of experienced players this year and the Yorkshire side which Cumbria faced on Saturday was a much better one than they defeated at Wigton two years ago.

Cumbria began brightly and led by 16 after the first quarter and though Yorkshire rallied Cumbria never looked in any great difficulty.

By 15 ends Cumbria wer once more 20 ahead and that advantage was extended to 28 at the end. Stuart Airey’s four beat Paul Mooring 27-13. All of Airey’s four played well but it remains a mystery that Airey has never been given the opportunity at anything other than second at international level.

Neil Currie, for who Mark Irwin settled in well, scored a ten-shot win over Chris Kelly while stalwart John Bell skipped his four to a nine-shot victory over David Stroughair.

Stephen Farish beat Ian Boyle 23-20 while Ben Sherwen’s young four, which had the misfortune to draw the best Yorkshire skip in Mark Walton, stuck to their task splendidly and led virtually throughout before going down on the last two ends 18-15.

Cumbria’s only other defeat was suffered by Richard Chandler in a good quality game. Chandler trailed throughout against Vinnie O’Neill but never deserved to be as far behind and came to have a chance of winning at the end but he could not quite make it and went down 19-14. The overall score line was 126-98 to Cumbria and it was fully deserved.

In the other group game at Gosforth Northumberland beat Durham 17-5 and by 21 shots. Reports from Durham suggested that they might be a force to be reckoned with this season following the appointment of Cliff Simpson as manager as it was anticipated that his appointment might persuade many of the good players who have previously been unavailable to return to the fold.

To date they have not all returned and with Northumberland appearing to be of similar standard to last year there must be every chance that Cumbria can continue to be top dogs in the northern area.

The EBA selectors have announced the Junior and Senior International Squads following the trial games last month.

There are no surprises for Cumbria – all three current junior internationals and all three current senior internationals are included in the squads.

Stuart Airey, Craig Docherty and Stephen Farish take part in the training this Sunday at New Lount BC in Leicestershire while John Bell, David Forster and Ben Sherwen will attend the same venue for similar training on July 22. After the training the final team selections will be made

At Whitehaven, Cumbria also made a good start taking 20 of the 22 points on offer against Lancashire.

In other northern games already completed, Northumberland beat Yorkshire 14-8 despite winning on just two rinks but then lost to Durham 16-6 at Hexham.

Northumberland beat Durham 14-4 at Stockton. Despite the fact that this event is now just four rinks the same scoring system applies. This gives a lop- sided final score and means that the individual rink scores count for very little and winning the game overall is all that really matters.

Perhaps the points for an overall win should have been reduced to six rather than remaining at ten.

Cumbria begins their campaign on Saturday when they travel to Lancashire and will surely prove much too good for the them. The selected side is shown below.

In the EBA competitions John Wills beat club-mate Bob Dalziel and Whitehaven’s Noel Christopher was successful against Paul Bannister. Wills will meet Gordon Niven of Lancashire while Christopher will face the winner of the game between Geoff Crerie and Stephen Walker.

In the Senior Singles, Joe Carr did well to beat Ron McMath while David Sampson accounted for John Forster. Ian Wells beat Keith Tomlinson and Danny Bradburn defeated Eric Gande.

Ron McMath had better fortune in the singles beating David Cannon 21-11 while there was a further success for Ian Wells who beat Mike Tuddenham. John Crozier beat Donald Holme, Bob Dent won the Appleby derby against David Sampson and Bob Au accounted for Peter Fisher.

In the EBA Two Fours, Appleby beat Whitehaven 35-26 and Subscription made it an unfortunate double for Whitehaven, beating their B side.

In the Top Club there was an exciting finish between Subscription and Wigton Park. The Baxters David and Andrew got the Wigton side off to a flyer when David beat Rick Gallagher in the Two wood and Andrew accounted for Neil Karge in the four wood.

Stuart Airey and Richard Chandler brought home side Subscription back to level terms, winning the pairs and triples and so the game depended on the fours.

Subscription led for much of the way but Wigton got back on terms at 13-13 only to then lose a count of five.

Wigton again fought back and went into the last end just two down. Wigton laid shot but John Baird changed places with the shot to lay two.

With his first bowls Mark Nanson was slightly tight and moved the jack into a cluster of three Wigton bowls but unfortunately for Wigton, Maurice Brown then returned the compliment by pushing a Subscription bowl in for second. Neither of the last two bowls made any difference and Subscription went through.

Cumbria travelled to Kirbymoorside to play Lincolnshire but the unavailability of several of the county’s top players together with a clash with the Under-25 Singles meant that the county was below full strength. Cumbria eventually lost by 22 shots.

The continued decline is certainly affecting tournaments and Subscription had a much reduced entry on Sunday for their Open Triples. Victory went to Gil Smith, Alan Strong and Willie Milne of the host club.

Cockermouth Croft once more played host to what was a good quality field of 16 players which included three Junior Internationals.

In the semi-finals Ben Sherwen beat Danny May 21-16 and in a marathon 28-end battle Lewis Parker came out on top against John Bell 21-20 after Bell had laid game twice. A host of good performances with the highlight almost certainly by the improving Silloth youngster Lewis Parker. The final is scheduled to be played at Wigton on Finals Day on July 22 but Junior International Squad training which includes Ben Sherwen means that the game is likely to be played sooner. Both players have qualified to play at Worthing in the National Championships whatever the final result.

Ten of Cumbria’s younger starlets take to the stage this coming Sunday at Dalston starting at 10am. Favourite will undoubtedly be Workington’s David Forster.

Courtfield knocked Stanwix off top spot with an 8-2 home win and Subscription moved to the top with a 7-3 home victory against Edenside. West End beat Brampton 8-2 and it was another home win on the night as British Rail took care of Dalston 8-2. Subscription lead the way with 42 points followed by Stanwix on 40 and Edenside with 39.

In the Over 60s on Friday Dalston head the table narrowly after an 8-2 home win over British Rail with Subscription just behind on shots after they were beaten 6-4 at West End.

Few surprises in either the County Pairs or Singles Championships though reigning Singles Champion Robin Phillips went out to Danny May and former champion David Gregory lost to Alex Smith. Full update next week.

Armstrong Trophy Lancashire v Cumbria, Saturday June 10, 2pm:

J Barber, P Pattinson, R Au, P Irving

M Hodgson, A Wilson, R Dalziel, R Phillips

R Baxter, M Little, R Ritchie, A Baxter

M Hodgson, C Allason, M Jackman, D Baxter