Hartlepool seal Egham win at national championships
It was a mixed weekend at Nottingham for two local teams as the national championships got underway.
In an absolute thriller of a mixed Egham Trophy final, Hartlepool beat Whiteknights 79-75 to land a first Egham title. Across the board Hartlepool won on three of the four rinks. Marc Squirrell beat Simon Jones 20-16 and Andy Kirtland beat Rob Newman 19-14.
Those two scores were cancelled out by Gary R Smith’s 26-14 loss to Paul Maynard, however it was the remaining Hartlepool rink of Sue Welsh, Janet Ridpath, Mark Higgins and Bryan Henderson (Jnr) who kept things going and sealed the deal with a 26-19 win over Alan Symondson. With Paul Mosley not available, Henderson stepped up to skip and, according to reports, put in a polished, mature performance.
There was disappointment for the Shields Vipers as they were well beaten in the final of the Top Club by Exonia 14-2 (91-69), although the pre-match build-up couldn’t have helped. The only Vipers win in the final came in the men’s singles where Jonny Forcer beat Scott Eveleigh 21-8.
In the women’s singles, Maureen Charles narrowly lost 21-17 against England star Nicole Rogers while David Bolt was well beaten in the mixed pairs 24-9 by Sophie Tolchard and Ian Bond. In the mixed triples, Paul Hartley lost 24-14 to Ian Lesley, and Gary Farquhar lost the mixed fours 14-8 against James Hampton, although they ended up only playing 12 ends. It was a different case in the semi-final as the Vipers dominated Egham in a 12-4 (86-50) win.
In the latter stages of the national singles, the Vipers’ Paul Hartley beat Alfreton’s Ashley Clipston 21-19 before going down to a red-hot Exonia’s Sam Tolchard 21-16. The title eventually went to Dorchester’s Martin Puckett.
In the women’s event, the Vipers’ Pat Browne won her opener only to lose to Hornsea’s Holly Baxter 21-5 in the
quarter-finals. Browne had also qualified in the over-60 singles and reached the semifinals before suffering a 2117 loss to North Cave’s Linda Wheeldon. In the men’s event, Hartlepool’s Albert Ward was beaten in the last 16.
The Vipers’ Alan Lawton’s hopes in the two bowl were dashed at the last-16 stage, Lawton suffering a 215 loss to Five Rivers’ Peter Ward. The eventual winner was Torquay’s Jamie Walker, which gets him into a rare club of having won both indoor and outdoor two and four bowl national titles during their career. In the women’s two bowl, Hartlepool’s Devon Cooper also suffered a last-16 loss, this time to Loddon Vale’s Alice Lovett.
The family pairs is currently taking place; Hartlepool’s Carl and Mark Higgins won their opener against Desborough’s Mark Essex 16-15 and were due to face St Neot’s Scott Walton.
As the indoor season enters the final few weeks,
Houghton brought down the curtain on their inter-club season with a cracking 8-2 (72-62) win over title-chasing Darlington. Prior to the game, Darlington knew they needed seven points to win the league – however, things didn’t go to plan. Down the A1, both Houghton squads performed admirably, Dale Oram's quartet of Joe Sutherland, Peter Brickle and Dan Todner battling back from trailing 13-6 to level the game 14-14 against Stan Summers. However, Oram’s lads were left to rue a late dropped six as they went down 21-17. That deficit, however, was covered by Freddie Fletcher, David Armstrong, Stevie Tindale and Jimmy McAdoo; leading 9-3 against Stan Blewitt, the Houghton quartet slipped to 15-13 down, but a 7-1 favourable return over the last three ends sealed a cracking 22-16 win which also secured the away total 39-37.
At Houghton it was a similar tale; at the 10-end mark Colin Young, Robert Johnson, Richie Jobling and David
Wright led Tony Macey 10-7, but things slipped away in the second half for Wright as Macey turned it around to run out a 16-12 winner. However, the match overall was decided on the remaining home rink. Mal Baker, Colin Brown, Gary McPheators and Alan J Dunn put in a five-star performance against Matthew Gleeson to run out 21-9 winners and not only seal the home overall total 33-25, but the match overall 72-62. The defeat for Darlington now opens the door for Hartlepool to take the title, and tomorrow they will take on Great Aycliffe knowing they need seven points to finish top of the table. Meanwhile, Houghton will most likely finish third.
The Stanley club have been hosting the PBA’s UK Open Qualifiers where 116 players from around the UK were battling it out for 11 golden tickets into the main UK Open, which started on Thursday, also at Stanley. Locally there was plenty of interest, with two local players grabbing one of those golden tickets into the main event. Gateshead’s Alex Bryden came through his group with a tremendous 10-1, 5-8, 2-1 tie-break win over the new World Under-25 singles champion Daniel Pool, while Hartlepool’s Gary R Smith also won his group beating the host club’s Brett Arkley 9-1, 5-5. There was disappointment for the three Vipers on show; David Bolt lost to a worldie of a bowl from Swansea’s Gavin Evans, Paul Hartley lost 6-6, 8-2 against an impressive Scottish international Claire Anderson and Ian McIntosh lost to Amar Nachi 7-7, 6-1.
In the main event, the WBT top 16-ranked players take on the 11 qualifiers, four overseas and Danny Dennison, the sponsors’ choice. Sadly, both local hopes were beaten; Gary R Smith lost in straight sets 7-4, 9-1 to Scotland’s Paul Foster MBE while Alex Bryden agonizingly lost on a last bowl tie-break against Scott Edwards after taking the first set 10-5.