Kitchen on course to retain county crown
» COTSWOLD Bowls Club hosted the qualifying rounds for the Gloucestershire County Junior Singles Championship, featuring 12 of Gloucestershire’s finest junior bowlers, aged from 12 to 25.
After three rounds, Josh Phillips (Ardagh BC) and Nathan Kitchen (Cheltenham BC, above) qualified and they will play each other in the county finals for the title on September 1 at Barnwood BC and will represent Gloucestershire at the National Championships at Leamington in August.
Kitchen, who has been junior county champion since 2013, has been called up by Bowls England to play in the junior international team.
» LEAGUE leaders Bishop’s Cleeve continue to dominate the De Rose Wealth Management North Gloucestershire League beating Churchdown 104-80 and winning on three rinks to give them nine more points, while Churchdown get four.
M Harvey, G Thomas, D Parry and D Hopkins beat J Shipway, D Paterson, M Gray and I Wood; N Hook. D Humphries, R.johnson and S Harvey won 20-17 against J Dancy, R Major, G Dean and N Cox and P Rishworth, A Jackson, P Harvey and A Letts won 25-9 to the triple of D Blogg, S Scott and D Gray 25-9. Two rinks lost; D Wake, D Clifford S Hopkins and Chris Johnson were beaten 18-22 by J Empson, F Etheridge, S Allen and P Bryant and T Poulson, D Pulsford, C Parker and J Daniels lost 16-29 to J Bailey, S Dockree, A Wales and P Bick.
Second placed Tewkesbury continued their winning run with a 119-88 win over Cheltenham Whaddon, as Tewkesbury earned nine points to Whaddon’s four.
Robin Burnell, John Glass, Stewart Minchew and Craig Guthrie won 33-15 against Steve Paitendon, Derek Fry, Don Hughes and Geof Hack; Ivan Robins, Richard Guans, Rob Arthur and Paul Keicher had a 23-17 win over Stan Bowd, Ken Aldridge, Dave Hooper and Ray Hawkins and Kelvin Bear, Mke Craggs, Keith Hawkes and Dave Boulton beat Andy Todd, Mike Newman, Malc Hodges and Roger Avery 29-13. Two rinks did lose; Hugh Mundy, Frank Hannigan, Dave Minchew and Eddie Kavanagh just lost 18-20 to Tudor Morris, Steve Gilman, Dave Simmons and Nigel Kavanagh and John Lawson, Andrew Turner, Colin Campbell and Mike Bishop were beaten 16-23 by Bernard Payne, Don Bailey, Eddie Broughton and Peter Mcgiffie.
Cheltenham who lie third, 19 points behind leaders Cleeve but with a game in hand, beat Cheltenham Spa by 30 shots, winning on four rinks to give them 11 points.
Keith Cripps, Peter Jones, Daniel Brookes and Campbell Mccoll had a 21-15 win against Alan Beach, Paul Dicks, Steve Barrett and Adam Grieve; Alan Myers, Charlie Rodgers, Neville Capper and Roger Hambidge won 20-17 against Roy Collard, Keith Evans, Robin Eeles and Dave Wiggall; Max Macky, Barry Steele, Ian Deakins and Jack Spoor beat Bill Dicks, Martin Thomas, John Salmon and Alan Taylor 32-8 and George Bevan, Roy Walker, Kevin Costello and John Doody had a 25-17 win against Ken Thomas, John Minett, Graham Emptage and Trevor Ritchie.