Bandits steal a march on last day to take title
IT has been a brilliant year for junior crown green bowls in the West Lancs and Sefton areas.
The junior league saw a record number of teams entering and it proved to be the closest ever finish.
It went right to the last day of the season and both teams ended up with 18 points each, the league title decided on the aggregate difference of points scored by players during the season.
This handed the league title to the Botanic Bandits for the fifth year on the run.
Matthew Potter from Scarisbrick BC finished top of the averages with Luke Dawes (Botanic BC) in second place.
Unfortunately, Burscough Warriors failed to complete all their fixtures and newcomers Ainsdale Avengers won their only match against them, before the results were scrubbed.
However, Ainsdale competed well with a team full of beginners and will do much better next year.
The Ormskirk Vikings also performed well, despite having several very young players, and finished second bottom.
The Moorfield Lions, from Widnes, came a creditable third in their second season in the league, having finished bottom last year.
The league finished in a tussle for top place between the Botanic Bandits from Churchtown and the Scarisbrick Saracens from Southport.
Full details of results, tables and averages for the league can be found at http://bowlsnet.uk/ WestLancsJunior.
The Junior Merit competition was hosted by Ormskirk Bowling Club for the first time.
However, steady rain took the edge off the event and games were run on a straight knockout basis, rather than the usual round robin format. Also, only the artificial green was used due to the wet slow condition of the grass green that had just been opened for the occasion.
In the 12 & Unders the opening round saw a shock exit for the reigning champion, Matthew Potter, who went out to homester Lily Copeland 11-6.
Last year’s runner-up Harry Prescott also exited to Lily’s brother Harry Copeland 11-8. It was almost destined to be an all-Copeland final with Harry overcoming Lucy Currie in the semi by 15-11 and Harry beating Andrew Arnold 15-9.
In the final young Harry, who was one of the youngest competitors at just nine, used all his brotherly wiles to win the psychological battle and take the game 15-9.
In the main Junior Merit the older players battled it out. New boy Joe Cuminski bravely battled it out in his first game but went down 11-5 to home player, and eventual finalist, Rylan Irwin.
One of the most fancied players, Archie Rimmer, also went out to Emma Gill 11-4.
In the semi-finals there was a tremendous battle between Emma Gill and Chris Farrell, and after Emma led through most of the match it was Chris that held his nerve to win 15-14. The other semi was a more one-sided affair with Rylan Irwin overcoming Brandon Deegan 15-3.
The final proved to be rather one-sided with Chris Farrell playing magnificently to beat Rylan 15-4 to take the trophy.
This has rounded off another wonderful season of junior bowling and with many young players coming through at the local clubs, the future is bright.
Local players are now taking around half the 24 places in the Lancashire team, compared to just one or two a few years ago, and Lancashire reached the finals day of the Junior County Championship for the first time this year.
This is on top of a record three teams entered in the Federation of Crown Green Bowls, two junior teams and one youth team.
Any young people interested in taking up crown green bowls can find out more on the West Lancs & Sefton Junior Bowls Forum website – https://wlsjuniorbowls. wordpress.com.