Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
County closing in on final spot
Canterbury
Canterbury pair Mick Fisher and Jeff Vane helped Kent reach the semi-finals of the Middleton Cup with a 124-101 victory over Surrey at Worthing Pavilion on Saturday.
Herne’s Bay’s Joe Kelly was also on duty for the county who now play Lancashire, with the winners facing either Devon or Bedfordshire, both matches being played at Leamington Spa on Saturday week.
The win against Surrey was a repeat of last year’s victory at the same stage. Kent then lost to Devon in the last four.
Kent aim for a double success with the ladies John’s Trophy team in action the same day.
The men won four and lost two of the six rinks, with Fisher and Vane in Gordon Charlton’s winning rink (21-16), while Kelly was a member of Pat Briscoe’s quartet who lost 20-13.
Team manager Mick Collins said: “It was a great team performance.
“It was a typical slow start, trailing after the first few ends, before we started to find our form and led by 10 at halfway.
“We then increased the advantage to around 25 shots which gave us a comfort zone and Surrey never looked like coming back from that.”
Collins added: “It was a great day for the county and I am so proud of taking this good bunch of lads back to the national finals.”
Table- topping Canterbury Ladies picked up another six points in the Dover League with a 17-shot win against Gateway. Canterbury 39 Gateway 22 Sally Blissett, Ros Cheeseman, Sue Close won 22-11 at home; Maddie Mcconomy, Yvonne Gambrill, Karin Walker won 17-11 away.
Canterbury Ladies suffered a 56-shot defeat, winning just one rink, when they were visited by the president and executives of the KCBA Ladies. Canterbury Ladies 88 KCBA Ladies 144 Maureen Aitkin, Sheila Holden, Wendy Wright, June Baker lost 23-16; Wyn Brooks, Rowena Laming, Marion Patmore, Sue Mates lost 28-16; Jill Jenkins, Joy Burton, Ros Cheeseman, Sue Close lost 21-17; Christian De Weduwe, Rosemary Wheeler, Barbara Grundy, Carole Nelson lost 26-11; Liz Long, Sue Trott, Madelaine Mcconomy, Sally Blissett won 19-15; Kay Lloyd, Sandra Swann, Heather Goldsack, Maureen Dilnot lost 31-9.
They did, however, win both triples against Chislet. Canterbury Ladies 40 Chislet 21 Barbara Grundy, June Baker, Bim Bishop won 19-12; Sue Longley, Carole Nelson, Sue Close won 21-9.
Canterbury had a narrow win against Hythe after winning two of the three rinks. Canterbury 36 Hythe 32 Maureen Aitkin, Rosemary Wheeler, June Strouts lost 11-8; Pat Vaughan, Madelaine Mcconomy, Sue Knott won 15-13; Sue Trott, Christiana De Weduwe, Sue Close won 13-8.
Canterbury lost on three of the five triples and by 12 shots to Sandwich. Canterbury 68 Sandwich 80 Brian Wheeler, Keith Brooks, Bernard Woodhams lost 20-10; Bill Hudson, Brian White, Alan Cornfoot won 26-7; Clive Selby, Mick Doyle, Mike Talbot won 20-11; Keith Havers, David Swann, Chris Dawson lost 29-3; Peter Needham, Ian Mitchell, Ian Burton lost 23-9.
There was a strong turnout for the ladies’ Open Triples with six Canterbury teams and 30 teams from other clubs.
Played on a round-robin basis with each team playing three Canterbury Ladies line-up alongside the president and executives of the KCBA Ladies in a match played as part of the section’s 50th anniversary celebrations games, the top three clubs all won three games and all won the same number of ends so the winners were decided on shot difference.
The winning team was Sara Trotter, Anita Harding and Madeline Mcconomy with Victoria Park’s Jean Johnson, Anita Hubbard and Eileen Piddock in second and Folkestone Park’s Pat Barkass, Kelly Farrar and Jean Philips taking third. Elaine Hinkley, M.woodward, D.mitchel lost 17-16; P.evans, B.crump, Janet Wimble lost 17-9; B.meadows, D.ayres, Jude Prosser lost 36-10; T.schofield, S.ewen, Barbara Franklin lost 27-13; Gill Barnes-webb, R.cordell, J.doyle lost 22-14.
The men won by six shots at Kearsney on Saturday. Kearsney 80 Faversham 86 B.meadows, E.bowyer, D.evenden lost 18-12; G.dacosta, T.foster, J.chase drew 16-16; D.ayes, S.ewen, P.ellison lost 25-12; M.woodward, D.mitchell, M.butt won 20-7; R.cordell, J.winslow, J.fullagar won 26-14.