Durham County’s Liberty Trophy hopes washed out
Hopes of an 18th Liberty Trophy final appearance for Durham County were left in tatters as they were beaten in the semi-finals 123-100 by Cambridgeshire at Erewash.
The two counties met at the same stage two years ago, and at the same venue, when Durham eased to a 32-shot win. Sadly for the Durham lads, lightening didn’t strike twice.
Across the green it was an even 3-3 split, Hartlepool’s Gary R Smith steered his rink to a 20-11 win, club mate Andrew Kirtland sneaked home by four shots and the Vipers David Bolt won 21-19.
It was a long day for a couple of Durham squads, Hartlepool’s Paul Mosley and the Vipers’ Paul Hartley both went down by 15 shots each and Hartlepool’s Marc Squirrell lost 22-14. After the traditional late Durham charge to lead 84-80, they conceded 29 shots across the board from the 15-18 end mark which ultimately sealed their fate.
Rink Scores (Durham Skips first): D.Bolt 21-19 A.Ware, M.Squirrell 14-22 J.Barker, P.Mosley 15-30 S.Popple, P.Hartley 12-27 N.Brett, GR.Smith 20-11 L.Baker, A.Kirtland 18-14 R.Tomlinson.
The last few Area Two finals were played this week. In the Over-60s Pairs, Hartlepool’s Steve Slaughter beat the Vipers’ Dave Paterson 24-9.
There was more Vipers woe in the Over-60s Fours as Aycliffe’s Hugh Murray won a thriller against Mal Peach 1615 to secure a place at the National Championships later this month.
In the National Over-60s Double Fours, Gates head have bookedasemi-finalplaceafter beating Grantham.
In these mi-final, the Gates head lads will tackle Bromley B on April 11, at Nottingham.
Houghton women ended their Inter-club campaign on a high as they clinched the league title with a 9-1 win over the South Shields Vipers, and by 38 shots overall.
At Houghton, Joan Rodgerson’s quartet of Jean Watt, Margaret Egg les ton and Susan Forster put in a five-star performance when beating Pat Browne 32-7.
Val Bambrough backed up that result with a 19-13 win over C.Bennett to leave the home squad 31 shots up.
At the Jack Clark Centre, Joan Baker’s rink of Margaret Godfrey, Lorraine Breheny and Brenda Robson had a cracking22-11winoverJ.Craig.
The only loss came from Norma Stephenson’s rink as they narrowly went down 1814 to Pam Carlin.
The win completed an unbeaten season securing the league title by a single point from Great Aycliffe.
Final table: Houghton 39, Great Ayc li ffe 38, Durham 29½, Sth Shields Vipers 19½, Gateshead 19½, Hartlepool 4½.
Champion of Champions finals: Saturday, March 18, at Hartlepool (1030am). Singles: P.Mosley (Hartlepool) v D.Quickmire (Aycliffe). Pairs: M.Squirrell (Hartlepool) v M.Barkess (Durham). Sunday, March 19, at Hartlepool (1.30pm), Triples: P.Mosley (Hartlepool) v M.Peach (Vipers). Seniors Finals: Thursday, March 23, at Darlington (1.30pm). Singles: A.Bryden (Gateshead) v D.Quickmire (Aycliffe). Pairs: D.Oram (Houghton) v K.Hutchinson (Durham). Triples: D.Kilner (Hartlepool) v F.Froud (Houghton).
Both sets of Fours finals take place at Ferryhill today (2 pm ). In the main F ours final, the Vipers’ Stewart Hubbard takes on Darlington’s Mark Ralphs, while in the Seniors final, Stanley’s Dave Webb tackles the Vipers Mal Peach.
Both of our local teams are in Top Ten action today and both will be looking to bounce back from previous losses.
Houghton host bottom of the table Stanley and the Vipers head to Great Aycliffe. With only three rounds of fixturestogo Hartlepool have a 21 point lead at the top.
Houghton squad: G.McPheators, S.Hanlon, D.Todner, M.Baker, R.Jobling, F.Froud, C.Blake, C.Watson, P.Thomson, Pat Thomson.
Vipers squad: K.Thompson, M.Murrell, R.Cragg, D.Gray, W.Gray, R.Hunter, W.Upsall, G.Powell, P.Unwin, M.Baker.
Scottish club Abbeyview host this year’s British Isles Championships and Home International Series.
Locally, Vipers’ David Bolt makes a return to the international stage and Hartlepool’s Jonny Forcer will also make his England debut in a team looking for an eighth consecutive Men’s Series win.
Scotland last won a home series 23 years ago at Prestwick.
In the Women’s Series, Hartlepool’s Devon Cooper features in an England team who have won nine of the last ten Scottish based series. Holders Scotland will be looking to end a 30 year wait to celebrate on home soil.
In April 2013 when Crowtree Leisure Centre closed its doors, it also ended the 37 year tenure of the Sunderland Indoor Bowling Club.
During its time at Crowtree, the Club invested a lot of its own funds to improve the venue. After the closure, club officials met with local council representatives and came to an agreement that a ring-fenced legacy fund would be put in place as acknowledgement of the investment the club had put into the council owned venue.
It was agreed that this fund could only be used to improve bowling facilities within the geographical boundary of the city. Despite club officials’ efforts over the last ten years, the prospect of an alternative venue have never materialised therefore a decision was taken by the remaining club officials to use some of this legacy fund to install a state of the art indoor bowls scoreboard at the Houghton indoor venue.
The set up which was installed by FSL Scoreboard Ltd features six wall mounted TVs and a six metre LED panel main scoreboard.
Sunderland secretary Richie Mckie stated: “We all had great memories at Crowtree and it was heartbreaking for many folk to see the bowls hall close, but it is time to move on now so we saw this as a great opportunity to use some of the legacy fund as a thank you to the Houghton club, who were great when the Sunderland club still operated albeit without a permanent venue of its own.”