Vintage performance by Grapes sees them crush Bold’s challenge

THE Grapes scored a full house of eight winners when they entertained Bold in the Widnes & District Pensioners Bowls League on Thursday.

Les Harrington (21-4), Mike Hagan (21-5) and Peter Symonds (21-8) put them in command at 51 up after four games had been played.

Pat Crowe (21-6) then rubbed in the punishment as Ray Bennett (20-21) had the best score for Bold.

Leaders Eccleston had seven winners in their home match against Widnes Bowling Club No1.

John Ryan (21-1) and Ernie Gore (21-5) were two of the first four winners for Eccleston as they established a 44-chalk lead at the halfway point.

John Cleary (21-14) then showed some resistance as he won for Widnes but Derek Roylance soon restored the balance for Eccleston who remain five points clear at the top of Division One.

Moorfield put their recent slump in form behind them as they easily beat their visitors Halewood No1 by 71 chalks.

Peter Goodwin (21-6) in the first four and Brian Furber (21-7) and Alan Mitchell (21-8) in the second four were the best performers for Moorfield with Peter Dunn (21-14) ploughing a lone furrow for Halewood.

Following their home win against Willow Brook Subscription No1 are five points behind The Grapes in fourth place. George Gibson (21-7) was the best winner for Subs and Graham Adams (21-12) was the sole winner for Willow Brook.

Rainhill eased their relegation worries with a home win against bottom of the table Fords No1 by 71 chalks.

This match was as good as over after the first four games with Joe Knockton (21-5), Bill Jefferson (21-7) and Peter Jaundrill (21-9) being three of the four winners for Rainhill.

Things did not get any easier for Fords in the second half as Bill Hudson (21-6) piled on the pressure which Fred Overy (21-13) could not fight off on his own.

Victoria Park No2 played a rearranged match at home to Dundalk Halton on Wednesday. They saw off the challenge of their visitors with three winners in each half and won by 41 chalks.

This success put Victoria Park No2 in first place in Division Two, two points clear of British Plate who went down to their third defeat of the season at Victoria Park No1 by 54 chalks.

John Hope in the first four and Derrick Mellor in the second half both won 21-5 for Victoria Park. Fred Ford (21-17) was the sole winner for British Plate.

There was an unusually low-scoring match at Castle Park where the visitors were Pavilions. The visitors had three single figure winners – Alan Richards (21-3) and Ray Barnett (21-5) in the first four, after which Pavilions led by eight chalks and Steve Cross (21-9) in the second four.

The match turned on wins of 21-4 by Arthur Land and 21-5 by Bill Steel for Castle Park in the second half.

The final score was Castle Park 118 Pavilions 109.

Moorfield No2 had their second win of the season at Runcorn War Memorial Club, something that had not looked to be on at the halfway mark when RWMC led by 10 chalks.

The Moorfield took control with three of the last four winners. Dave Smith (21-16), Tommy Rimmer (21-11) and Dennis Horrocks (21-20) fought off the challenge from Jim Owens (21-16) and the rest of RWMC’s second four to win by just a single chalk.

The Ball continue to make progress and following their sixth win of their season are now in sixth place.

Billy Hillaby put them off to a great start with his 21-4 win in the first four which counteracted Ted Lewis’s 21-5 win for Dundalk Halton.

Then the Ball took control, winning all four games in the second half of the match. Their best winners were Tommy Price (21-2) and Ken Hill (21-5).

The clash between Widnes Bowling Club No2 and Fords No3 in Division Three was decided in the first four where Fords established a lead of nine chalks, despite Dave Nevitt’s 21-5 win for Widnes.

In a keenly-contested second half of the match Fords only relinquished one chalk and ran out the 141-133 winners.

This leaves these two teams level on 16 points but Widnes have played two games more.

In first place and six points ahead of both of these two teams is the United Services Club.

They won at Fords No2, despite having only three winners.

After the first four games Fords were 84-57 ahead. Then Tony Friar (21-6), Gary Davies (21-7) and Gordon Hart (21-16) took the match away from Fords and gave the two points to the USC.

In other matches Subscription No2 won at Halewood No2 142-136 and Hough Green Pensioners got the better of Birchfield 139-122.