Progress in the Plate and a high for Houghton...March into 2018
This week’s report ventures back to March 2018 as another indoor season reaches its latter stages.
Following their disappointing October firstround exit in the Denny Cup, South Shields had dropped down into the Denny Plate.
Wins over The Parks, Houghton, Copeland, Darlington and Boston set up a semi-final against Suffolkbased Beccles, who had hit over 90 shots in four of their five wins en route to the last four.
The two teams went head to head on a neutral green at Grantham, where Shields were quickest out of the blocks and led 22-9 at the five-ends mark.
The lead was extended to 26 shots at the halfway mark and the writing was on the wall as Shields’ lads booked a final place with a 83-46 win.
Gary Farquhar’s quartet of Dave Paterson, Josh Minto and James Sneller were always in control against M Todd and ran out impressive 25-9 winners.
Jaxon McKenna, Paul Sainthouse, Stewart Hubbard and Shaun McIntosh defeated A Clarke 23-11, while Phil Dixon, Mal Peach, Kris Storf and David Bolt eased to a 21-14 win over Ian Catchpole.
The remaining rink of Neal Ridley, Stevie Cairns, Ian Riches and Ian McIntosh ground out a low-scoring 1412 win over A Norman.
The win set up a final appearance against West Berks, but without the services of David Bolt, who would be representing England at the Commonwealth Games.
South Shields were on the verge of a return to the top flight of the inter-county league after a comprehensive 66-shot win over Gateshead A.
At Shields, both home squads broke the 30-shot barrier.
Mick Maher, P Hart, Fred Knubley and Alan Lawton cruised to a 38-8 win over Tom Magnay while Ian McIntosh steered Michael Baker, Eric Weightman and Stewart Hubbard to a high-scoring
33-18 win over Bob Charlton, those scores leaving the home squad 45 shots in credit. The clean sweep was completed at Gateshead as both away squads recorded wins.
Scott Baker, T Giles, Peter Brickle and James Sneller had a cracking 29-13 win over Bob Wood while Bill Upsall, Michael Carr, Keith Taylor and Paul Sainthouse ground out a 20-15 win over John Wolfendon to leave the away squad 21 shots up and in the process completing a 10-0 points win.
The win put Shields top of the second division and, mathematically, they would only need nine points from their last two games against Dunelm and Ferryhill.
The Houghton Sancroft squad ended their seniors inter-club league campaign on a high as they defeated Gateshead 5-0 to leapfrog them and finish third in the group.
Mal Baker, George Brown, Freddie Fletcher and David Wright never looked back from an early 13-2 lead over John Atkinson, and in the end Wright ran out an 18-9 winner.
Joe Sutherland, Foster Johnson, Jimmy Swinney and Terry Todd had to come from behind against Ian Patterson.
Trailing 10-6, Todd collected a vital five on the 14th end on the way to a 16-11 win.
The remaining rink of Peter Thomson (snr), Trevor Joicey, Ian Whorlton and Frankie Froud survived a late scare.
Leading Bill Bolam 8-2, Froud slumped to 9-8 down going into the final end.
However, the Sancroft quartet held their nerve and a last-end three secured an 11-9 win.
Overall, Sancroft ran out 45-29 winners and frustratingly finished only four points outside a play-off place.
Houghton Ladies concluded their inter-club season with a cracking 6-4 (73-55) win over Great
Aycliffe.
At Houghton, both home rinks returned winning cards, Joan Watt, Evelyn Barkes, Susan Forster and Ellen Faith in scintillating form as they beat Jane Robinson 32-8.
Doreen Fenwick, Margaret Eggleston, Brenda Robson and Florence Phythian eased past Esther Helm 1911 to leave the home squad exactly 30 shots to the good.
Down the A1, despite a decent performance both away rinks went down.
Margaret Metcalf, Eleanor Barren, Joan Baker and Jenny Smith were a touch unlucky to go down 16-13 to J.Rogers, while Maureen Hall, Elizabeth Morris, Audrey Vout and Norma Stephenson saw things slip away in the second half to finish 18-9 down to E.Hugill.
Despite the away deficit of 12 shots, it was still a good performance.
There was heartache for the Durham County seniors as they narrowly missed out on retaining their Midland League title by a single point.
Going into their final game at Doncaster against Warwickshire, the Durham lads needed at least 21 of the 22 points on offer to win by 11 shots overall.
Sadly, despite winning on five rinks and by 41 shots overall, Durham only collected 20 points, leaving Yorkshire as champions by a single point.
It was of little consolation that Durham won all five of their games while Yorkshire only won four.
In the final stages of the national mixed pairs, Lauren and Paul Mosley were flying the region’s flag and after mixed fours disappointment, the Hartlepool husband and wife pairing produced four stunning performances to take the national title.
In the last 16, a 22-7 win over the newly-crowned WIBC junior singles champion, Ely’s Ed Elmore, was followed by an impressive 20-16 win over Extonia’s newly-crowned world indoor pairs winner Jamie Chestney - this after Mosley trailed 13-7.
In the semi-finals, the Mosleys comfortably defeated two England internationals, Swales’ Sandy Hazell and Perry Martin, 17-6 with three ends unplayed, which set up a final against Welfordon-Avon’s Amy and Andrew Walters.
In the final, the Hartlepool duo always had their noses in front, at five ends 8-3 then 11-7 at halfway.
With three ends to play, the lead was down to 15-13, but they held their nerve to clinch the title 17-14.
Former Sunderland player and by then playing out of Stanley, Stevie Angus, continued to shine in the Disability Bowling circle.
Angus competed in the Ann Trotman Open singles competition at Gedling.
The three-bowl singles format started as four groups of four, with the winners progressing to semi-finals then the final.
Angus topped his group after securing three wins, 21-6 against Dave Walker, 216 over Colin Wagstaff and 2115 against Tim Swann.
In the semi-finals, the Stanley player recovered from 12-7 down against Jonathan Stokes to snatch an extra-end 17-16 win, which set up a final against Gary Swift.
Sadly for Angus, the final didn’t go to plan as Swift ran out a 21-9 winner.
Back to 2021, and the Bowls Durham county championship formats will fall in line with the Bowls England changes.
The pairs moves to threebowl 18 ends, triples to twobowl 18 ends and the fours drops to 15 ends.
The changes introduced by Bowls England take into consideration the current climate, reflect on the recent survey responses and are also designed to duplicate the Commonwealth Games formats.
The other change will see only the county champion now qualifying for Leamington.
Finally, there was some sad news for Bowls Durham as the 2013 county president Ken Raper (Lanchester) has passed away.