Harry enjoys matches to remember on successful day

IT was a really successful day for talented local young crown green bowlers on Sunday.

Young bowlers from across the Southport, Formby and Ormskirk areas converged on the hot and sunny Botanic Gardens in Churchtown for round two of matches in the Federation of Crown Green Bowls to represent the Ormskirk West Lancashire team.

The juniors fielded an impressive 12 players so everyone got two matches each in either the two eight-player matches or two four-player matches.

In the first eight-player match against Furness it was almost a clean sweep.

The first four of Emma Gill (Ormskirk), Luke Sinnott (Formby), Jess Hodge (Burscough) and Connor Peake (Botanic) all won.

This was followed by successes for Jazmin Jones (Formby), James Catton (Scarisbrick BC) and Matthew Gill.

James Catton registered the best vic- tory, 21-12 against his opponent Alex McCormack.

Only Luke Dawes from the Botanic lost and that was a close game (21-17) against Jack Brannon.

In the second eight-player game against Furness ‘A’, there were three new young debutants in the team, all from the Botanic Bowling Club.

Harry Prescott, aged just 10, got the best score of these three and of the whole team, by winning 21-9 against Leni Brown-Regan.

Teammate Emily Clare (12) won to 17 and Ellie McNeill (12) unfortunately lost to 11 against a good opponent,

The team managed five winners though to win the match.

The two four-player matches were all one-way traffic and the team won all four games against Furness, Luke Sinnott (Formby) starring in this encounter with a 21-10 win.

In the final four-player contest, Harry Prescott starred again with a 21-10 victory against the same opponent he played earlier in the day.

The final game saw a thrilling finish as Ellie McNeill led and only needed one point to win.

Her opponent pegged her right back to 20-20 but Ellie held her nerve to bow a toucher in the last end to take the match, with the team winning all four games again to take the contest.

The Junior team ended the day with a far greater points haul that all the other teams and Harry Prescott took the Player of the Day trophy for his two fine victories.

The Youth games for those aged 17-20 did not end quite as successfully for Ormskirk West Lancs but there were some notable performances.

The Middleton side did not turn up so the team had to take on the Heavy Woollen outfit from Dewsbury in Yorkshire three times.

In the first match, the captain, Fergal Wright (Botanic), led from the front with the only win, 21-15 against Callum Fennell.

In the second match it was Fergal again who took the prized scalp of Robbie Ellis in a close game (21-20) in front of a loud and enthusiastic crowd.

Chris Whalley (Scarisbrick BC) was the only other winner, 21-11, in his contest.

In the final game the team did one better with Anthony Lewin (Formby) winning 21-19 along with Fergal Wright (2118) and Chris Whalley (21-14).

Ryan Maughan (Ormskirk) was unlucky to lose after clawing back from being behind to make it 20 across, only to lose on the last end.

Fergal Wright deservedly took the Player of the Day with his fine three wins.

A great day was had by all and the hospitality of the Botanic Gardens Bowling Club was second to none.

The sponsors on the day of Arcade Sports, Maric Trophies and the Botanic Gardens Café also deserve some thanks for supporting the young players.

The sport is certainly in a healthy state locally with so much talent on offer.

For more details of how to take part in local junior crown green bowling visit the website of the West Lancs & Sefton Junior Bowls Forum at www.wlsjuniorbowls.wordpress.com