Horsham involved in some close finishes
There’s action from Horsham BC, Pulborough BC, Billingshurst BC and the West Sussex Tourists in our latest bowls round-up.
HORSHAM
At home to Lancing, in a match comprising three triples, Horsham won all three games with an overall score of 59-37.
Top rink of the day with a winning score of 20-10 was Peter Philpot, Tony Male skipped by Jan Barnes.
Thesunshonetowelcome a team of Sussex Vice Patrons for a long-standing fixture in the friendly calendar.
The men’s game over five rinks was played in a jolly atmosphere, but their county players were giving the home team players a tough time.
A close result ensued, with Sussex Vice Patrons just winning 95-91.
Top rink for Horsham was skipped by Doug Whetstone, assisted by Dennis Masini, David Strydom and Neil Jarvis, with a score of 33-10.
Leatherhead visited Horsham, bringing a team of 16 for a four-rink match.
Horsham won on all four rinks. Horsham had two rinks winning by five shots each. Dennis Masini, Fran Baillie, Neil Jarvis and Jan Barnes won 18-13; Anna Bishop, David Strydom, Bob Devine and skip Dave Marden 21-16.
The overall score was 7058.
PULBOROUGH
New opponents Aldingbourne came to Pulborough in the Brooks Motors League.
Trevor Bushell's team of Jenny Patterson and Steve Meadowcroft battled their way to a 16/14 win.
Skip John Brown, with Sylvia Smith as lead and Ray Knight as two dominated the second half of their match, taking top rink for the league teams and winning by 22 -10.
Top rink overall went to the friendly rink, which was skipped for the first time by Paul Smith, supported by Linda Meadowcroft and new member Jeremy Mitchell 36/5.
Pulborough gained the full six league points for the
win, moving them to the top half.
Pulborough's next match was a home friendly against Graffham BC.
Three triples played on a very fast green that initially caught the visiting teams offguard.
Captain-of-the-day Malcolm Gray, lead his team of Linda Meadowcroft and Paul Smith to a 21/17 win, after leading from the first end.
But top rink went to skip Trevor Bushell, with Jenny Patterson as lead and Jane Gray as two, after scoring 10 shots in the last four ends to take the win by 24-10.
The final result was 61/44 to Pulborough after a fantastic afternoon in the sunshine.
County success came from Steve Adsett, who won the area final of the county two wood, beating Roger Ayling from Norfolk 14-11 and the area semi-final of the County Champion of Champions, beating Jeff Page from Storrington 2½.
Steve will play the area final against Anthony Ball from Southbourne.
Fellow Pulborough player Matt Ives was this week facing Steve in the third round of the County Singles for the chance to reach the area final.
BILLINGSHURST Stedham 37 Billingshurst
54
Billingshurst's wining season continued with back to back wins against Steadham and Brockham.
Playing away first at the Steadham green, Billingshurst were in fine form with a brace of fives and several fours to run out worthy winners by 17 shots.
Scores: Hazel Sandford, David Delves, Alan Readshaw (L) 14-18, Carole Neal, Robert Dakin, Alan Knight (L) 12-16, Top rink Ray Sutton, Marion Clark, Ray Neal (W) 28-3.
Billingshurst 48 Brockham 39
Billingshurst hosted Brockham from Surrey and pushed on to win by nine shots.
Scores: Ken Peters, David Delves, Alan Readshaw (W) 19-13, Sonia Redman, Robert Dakin, Alan Knight (L) 11-17, Top rink Bill Spence, John Lucas, Chris Laker (W) 18-9.
WEST SUSSEX TOURISTS
After missing the last two years because of Covid, the West Sussex Tourists looked forward to their latest tour scheduled to be in Ipswich.
But the tourists found out in March that the Best Western Ipswich could not host them, saying they would be closing for 12 months for refurbishment.
But club secretary Chris Rolph was able at extremely short notice able to arrange a five-night tour in Torquay, based at The TLH Carlton Hotel and thankfully every thing went without a hitch.
The club’s 65th annual tour coincided with club secretary Chris Rolph creating a new travelling record of 36 consecutive tours and 32 years as club secretary.
The previous record holder was Ken Armstrong and Ken’s son Paul travelled down at the end of the week to present Chris with an engraved trophy to commemorate the feat of passing his father’s record.
Four games were played during the week resulting in two wins and two losses.
At Topsham BC the tourists won 137-81. Top rink was Paul Chivers, John Bussell, Nigel Short and Jon Clear, 3610. At Uffculme BC WST won 130-79. Top rink was Geoff Kendall, Norman Burchfell, Jon Clear and Chris Rolph, 30-7.
On to Torquay BC and the touring team lost 89-100. Top rink was Mike Bird, Harrison Dray, Gareth Beven and Roger Ayling.
And at Crediton BC WST lost 103-127. Top rink was Derek Ford, Graham Ray, George Dunham and Chris Rolph, 24-14. Player of the tour award was Geoff Kendall, who pipped Chris Rolph and Paul Chivers to win the trophy for the first time.