Legendary duo Barnes and Hanger’s national joy
Winning a national title, either indoors or outdoors, is one of the highlights of any bowler’s career, a national title opens the door to the British Isles Championships and a chance to represent England – and this week we remember four of the best that the local bowls scene enjoyed.
Back in 1980, following their magnificent national pairs title win over Falcon’s Graham Coles, Sunderland’s legendary pair Jack Barnes and Ted H anger represented England in the 1981 British Isles Championships at Cardiff.
Although details from the 1980 Championships are unfortunately scarce, the Sunderland duo went on to be crowned champions.
Then in 1992 there was success in the triple sat Prestwick as Richie McKie, Jimmy Lambert and Gary Smith followed up their previous year’s national title win over Tony Allcock by landing the British Isles triples.
A 20-10 victory in the semi-finals over Wales set up a final against one of Scotland’s young gun’s, Angus Blair.
If it wasn’ t a tough enough ask forth eS underland trio already playing against the local hero, the final was also held on an end rink with a stand full of vociferous Scottish supporters backing Blair.
Despite winning only two of the first seven ends, the Sunderland lads were only a couple of shots adrift.
A change of length from the eighth end onward saw the momentum swing into the Sunderland trio’s favour as they went on to score on six of the next eight ends to open up an 18-11 lead which dampened the Scottish crowd’s spirits.
In the end the contest finished 19-13 to the Sunder land trio, the win was only England’s fifth in the triples.
The 2015 outdoor season saw a British Isles title return to the north east.
Following their dramatic last end national title win
over Yorkshire, the D urham & Silksworth quartet of Phil Dixon, Neal Ridley, Ian Riches and David Bolt represented England in the British Isles Fours competition, which was held at Eddlewood Bowling Club, Hamilton.
In the semi-finals of the competition, the Silks worth lads produced a late surge, collecting fourteen shots in three ends to seal a 28-16 win over Wales’ Wyn Matthews to set up a final against Ireland’s Myles Greenfield.
In the final the Silks - worth quartet looked down and out as they trailed by a 17-9 scoreline.
But they dug in and got it back to within five shots with two ends to play, a 20th end double left Bolt looking for a count of four on the last end.
With one bowl each to play and the Silks worth lads only holding a couple of shots, a brilliant take out by Bolt turned the head into a match winning four.
And when the Irish skip failed to reduce the count with his final bowl, the title was heading to the north east and a 14th England win in the event.
It is always an honour to represent your country, but to do it on your home green and land a British Isles title
is what dreams are made of.
Well fast-forward to the 2013 indoor season and the Stanley quartet of Brian Harris, Stevie Angus, David Bolt and Gary Smith did just that in the fours championships.
After the thrilling national title success at Nottingham over Hartlepool’s Vinnie O’Neill, the Stanley quartet were England’s major hope of picking up some silverware in the fours championships.
A preliminary round 23-15 win over Ireland’ s Glen McCloy was followed by a semi-f in al22-13success over Channel Island’s Thomas Greechan.
The dream came to
fruition in the final as the Smith quartet cruised to a comfortable 30-13 win over Wales bowler John Roberts to become only the 10th England success in the fours.
With the new indoor season due to start at Houghton on Monday, the indoor national governing body the EIB A-who have just released version five of their return to indoor bowls guide - have confirmed that the new C ovid -19 restricti ons doesn’ t affect the sport nationally.
However, locally with Sunderland being added to the government’s Covid watchlist as cases continue to rise, things could always change quickly moving forward.
One local indoor club has unfortunately had to close due to one of their m embers being tested positive for Covid-19.
The Gates head indoor club is currently undergoing a deep clean and they revealed that they hope to be able to re-open in the near future.
Last season’s cancelled EIBA indoor national championships from March to April have now been pencilled in to take place later this year in November under secure Covid-19 secure conditions.
Meanwhile this season’s national competitions will get underway in October with the singles and pairs, January will see the triples and fours start while the club and county competitions will also start in January.
There was some very sad news for the local bowls community as Billy Conway sadly passed away at the age of 82.
The former City of Sunder land indoor club and Hyl ton Collier y Welfare member was a hugely popular figure as well as a good club member and a very much under rated player. Bill was also a local cricket umpire.