The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
National triples glory for the Parkway boys at Leamington
There was national glory for Hunts bowlers at the Bowls England championships at Leamington with Parkway’s Mike Robertson and brothers Ean and Tristan Morton winning the triples title.
Former England international Tristan reminded the selectors of his ability as he skipped the trio to an impressive sequence of results, including a 15-14 final defeat of an all-international line-up from the Kings club in Torquay – Louis Ridout, Sam Tolchard and Jamie Chestney.
And Robertson, too, boosted his hopes of representing England in the disability section of the Commonwealth Games in Australia next year, having followed up his success in the Disability Bowls England open singles on the same greens a few weeks before.
They were in control for most of the final and led 13-5 after 12 ends before resisting a late charge from the Devon trio including a four count on the last end which was not enough to deny the local bowlers their moment of glory and the chance to represent England in next year’s British Isles championships.
En route to the final they defeated Berks (19-16), Devon (34-15), Northumberland (2115), Cumbria (15-11) and then Oxfordshire (20-14) in the semi-finals.
Hunts’ other representatives from Papworth – Kane Phillips, Kevin Ward and Eric Baker – also reached the semifinals, where they were beaten 10-23.
It was a case of after the Lord Mayor’s Show for the triples champions two days later when they were knocked out in the opening round of the pairs.
The Morton brothers lost 15-21 to Somerset, while Robertson, skipping Brian Martin, was beaten 21-22 by Middlesex.
The Warboys rink of Simon Leader, Harry Ward, Lewis Baker and Nicky Brett reached the quarter-finals of the fours, where they were beaten 19-23 by the eventual winners from Herefordshire following wins over Warwicks (24-16), Essex (27-26) and Berks (25-19).
The other Hunts rink from Parkway – Paul Dalliday, James Harford, Simon Law and Stuart Popple - let slip a big lead in their 15-16 second round defeat by Northumberland which followed a 26-21 win over Middlesex.
There was no joy in a couple of senior events during the past week, with West Ward’s Dick Noble beaten 1321 in the opening round of the men’s senior singles by Herefordshire’s Martin Smith, and Buckden’s Jenny Casey, Daphne Meats, Val Corn and Pat Purrsord losing 7-30 to Devon in the preliminary round of the new women’s senior fours event.