Roberts and Todner claim first Aussie pairs success
In 2012, the inaugural Golden Charter Australian Pairs tournament was held at Crowtree.
The format saw 20 pairs compete in a tournament format for a £400 prize fund.
The eventual winners were Billy Roberts and Dan Todner who despite winning all five games only took the £200 first prize on shots difference.
The father and son combination of Peter and Peter Thomson finished second and only missed out on the first prize by a single end.
A last bowl win ensured third place went to Jaxon McKenna and Michael Wright while Tony Wood and Tony Grimes finished fourth.
The tournament was jointly sponsored by Golden Charter Funeral Plans, Jeff Wilson funeral director of Ashbrooke Funeral Service and the City of Sunderland IBC.
In the Inter County league just two games ago, Sunderland were top of the six team league and vying for the title.
However, a defeat against The Parks saw them go into the final round of games against Hartlepool needing three points from the twelve on offer to actually avoid relegation.
Unbelievably, relegation to Division Two was confirmed as they lost 11-1 to Hartlepool, plus Shildon’s 9-3 win over bottom-of-the-table Gateshead was the final nail in the coffin.
At Crowtree, the home squad failed to produce the goods, Michael Wright, Pat Collins, Alfie Ferguson and Terry Todd well beaten 32-12 by R.Carson.
The rink of Neil Ridley, Jaxon McKenna, Ray Robinson and Peter Thomson never recovered from a slow start and lost 26-16 against Carl Higgins.
The remaining rink of Ritchie Mckie, Gary Embleton, Billy Mitchell and Stevie Angus were unlucky to lose on the last end 19-17 to John Wells, leaving the home squad pointless and thirty-two shots in arrears.
Down the A19 at Hartlepool, the away squad made a better fist of it, although only the rink of Billy Hearne, George Simpson, Joe Flett and Tommy Jopling returned home victorious albeit by a
single shot 17-16 over B.Mosley.
Gary Farquhar’s quartet of Phillip Dixon, Keith Hopper and Hendy Shields went down 27-15 to Paul Mosley while George Brown, Vic Avery, Michael Laydon and David Bolt narrowly lost 16-14, leaving the away squad thirteen shots down.
So it was back to Division Two, which is even more remarkable as the eventual league champions Darlington were thumped 11-1 by the Sunderland squad earlier in the season.
The 2012 indoor curtain at Crow tree came down as the remaining club final was completed.
In the men’s fours final, Keith Hopper, Stevie Angus, David Bolt & Gary Smith took on Ritchie Mckie, Arthur Baker, Pete Thomson and Billy Ferry.
The early stages belonged to the Smith quartet as they raced into a 8-0 lead after only two ends.
By the sixth end the writing looked to be on for wall for Ferry as Smith led 12-1, but a Fer
ry single on the seventh saw a dramatic change in length which altered the complexion of the final.
On the 11th end with Smith leading 13-6, Ferry played a cracking trail on the jack to collect a five to get back to 13-11.
At rio of singles to Ferry saw the lead change hands and going into the final end not only did Ferry lead 14-13 but also in the event of a draw 8-6 on ends won, meaning Smith needed to score at least a two on the last end.
As the final end progressed it was apparent that Smith would get an opportunity and so it proved, with the final bowl of the game and lying shot down but with two seconds, Smith showed his international class and played a weighted bowl into the head, lifting Ferry’s bowl out to count a matchwinning three shots and seal a 16-14 win.
The Durham Liberty squad went into their 13th Liberty Trophy final appearance looking to clinch an 11th title against Somerset.
The previous year Somer
set were thumped by eightyfive shots in the final by Norfolk and any thoughts of springing a surprise against hot favourites Durham never materialised as Durham won on all six rinks, cruising to a fifty-five shot win with 18 ends un-played.
Final Scores – (Durham skips first) A.Kirtland 1714 S. Wiltshire, GR. Smith 26-7 R.Francis, G.Skipp 1817 J.Hick, J.Thurlbeck 2510 G. S had well, V.O ’ Neill 17-12 N.Kunc, D.Bolt 24-12 A.Colebrooke.
England retained the Under-25 home international series at Nottingham in controversial circumstances.
In the series decider against Scotland with the scores level and only a few ends remaining, one of the scoreboard attendants sadly suffered a heart attack which caused the umpire to suspend play to allow paramedics to deal with the incident.
In the meantime all the Scotland team walked off to the changing room.
However, two English skips were instructed to remain on the green as England held counts of four and one; as the rule states, if all players leave the green due to an unofficial break in play, then the end in progress must be replayed.
After a thirty minute delay, the umpire in charge correctly applied the laws of the game and stated all the ends which hadn’t been completed needed to be replayed.
This was due to it being deemed as an official suspension in play, leading to the England manager to lodge an official complaint which resulted in a British Isle Bowls Council emergency meeting which amazingly overruled the umpire despite the umpires actions being correct.
So England held on to the two counts while all the other uncompleted ends where Scotland held shots had to be replayed.
This led to a very intense and unpleasant atmosphere which saw England eventually run out winners.
Happily the scoreboard attendant made a full recovery.