Bowls round-up – Spa take on Australian Commonwealth Games squad

LEAMINGTON HOME GUARD

Home Guard returned to winning ways this week in a 5 rink triples at Victoria Park with a convincing 86-57 win over Lillington. The Guard had 3 winning rinks, the highest was Pete Larkin assisted by Mike Hall and John McDermott with an emphatic win after being 16-1 up at 8 ends never to be challenged running out with a final score of 26-3 against Ian Henderson’s trio. Vice-Captain Les Woodfield with Pete Warren and Keith Lewis were similarly ahead at 8 ends 9-4 and went on to finish with a 22-6 victory against Martin Preedy’s rink. Mike Harrison aided by Colin Chamberlain and Clive Antrobus were 4-11 down at 8 ends but manged a strong second half and a 17-15 victory over Dave Turner’s trio. Lillington had success with wins against Brian Smith 18-13 and Martin Bailey 15-8.

LILLINGTON

Men’s Friendly away to Home Guard, 5 x triples, Home Guard won 86-57

Mike Davies, Dave Print and skip Ian Henderson did not get on scoresheet till the 8th end when a home side skipped by Pete Larkin scored 16 – who continued their advantage to win comfortably 26-3

Jim Melville, Sid Solanki and skip Hugh Matthews trailed 3-5 at 8 ends but took control against a Mick Bayley trio in the second period for a 15-8 win for the visitors

Clive Radford, Steve Poole and skip martin Preedy trailed a Les Woodfield trio 4-9 at 8 ends and failed to muster a challenge in the second half to lose 6-22

Martin Buggins, Norman Stephens and skip Dave Turner eased into an 11-4 lead at 8 ends and sought a good win before dropping a 7 on the penultimate end to lose 15-17 to a Mark Harrison trio

Mick Smith, John Buggins and skip John Henfrey had a slow start trailing 4-9 at 8 ends but with the help of a 6 on the next end secured a 18-13 win over a Home Guard side skipped by Brian Smith

Men’s Friendly home to Rugby, 4 x rinks, LBC won 80-73

Mick Smith, Clive Radford, Phil Sampson and skip John Buggins enjoyed a close game against a visitors rink skipped by Ian Gibbs drawing 14 all at 14 ends, the home side then took a 6 shot advantage but a fightback by the visitors resulted in a 21 shot each draw.

Martin Buggins, Mike Davies, Andy Hughes and skip Nigel Roach trailed an Ian Kendall rink 5-9 at 10 ends and the visitors puled further away in the second period to secure a 21-11 win

Peter Dellow, David Harwood, Dave Taylor and skip Martin Preedy eased into a 10-4 lead at 10 ends against a visitors rink skipped by Adrian Johnston who fought back to within 2 shots by the 17th end but a late surge by the home side secured a 23-12 win

Sid Solanki, Dave Print, Ian Henderson and skip Colin Daly trailed a Nigel Townsend rink 6-12 at 10 ends but a resurgent home side had taken the lead by the 13th end which they did not relinquish to run out 25-19 winners.

ROYAL LEAMINGTON SPA

Royal Leamington Spa had both men’s and ladies’ teams in action last weekend.

At home to Sherwood Park from Birmingham in a match reduced to just 3 triples by the visitor’s lack of players, Spa’s men’s team started brightly and held a 37-23 lead by the halfway stage. However, a determined fightback by Sherwood Park led to a nervy finish. With Spa’s Dave Wigman (17-19) and Raymond Patterson-Morton (12-21) both falling to defeats, Spa had the trio of David J Turner, Dave Payne and Mervyn Taylor (26-14) to thank for a one shot overall win, 55 shots to 54.

Playing away at Wolvey, Spa’s ladies match was another close affair. Only playing one rink and one triple because of the opposition’s player shortages, another strong start saw Spa build a 21-10 halfway lead, only to see Wolvey reduce the arrears to just a single shot with two ends to play. However, Spa steadied the ship and despite a narrow 15-17 loss for Lyn Wilne on the rink, a final score of 17-11 by the trio of Gill Allibone, Bonny Claridge and Enid Reece was sufficient to give Spa a 32-28 overall win.

Having been using the Victoria Park greens over the past couple of weeks for some early Commonwealth Games familiarisation and training, an Australian squad comprising men, ladies and disability bowlers, gave Spa the rare opportunity to face international opposition last week. A thoroughly enjoyable afternoon ended with a predictable win for the Aussies as they took a clean sweep in all 10 of the triples games played. However, there were excellent performances by Pauline Dineley, Chris Tarrant and Dave Harding (17-19), Graham White (14-18), Dave Payne (10-15) and Jenny Wickens (11-18) who all only just fell short of claiming some notable scalps.

SOUTHAM

Southam had a convincing win in their their home match against Woodford 78-37.Highest winning rink was skipped by Wendy Jeffs with Bob Jardine, Stuart Dunne, Sheila Lyne who led from the start to win 29-5.Ted Coupe (skip) Marie Bromwich, Peter Godfrey, Jamie Langston were never in trouble winning 18-6.Heather Tredgold (skip) Sandi Couchman, Rosalie Ward, Carol Bradley had a tighter game but stayed in front to win 16-12.Sue Thornicroft (skip) Barbara Godfrey, Ken Tredgold had a triples game and just managed to win by one shot 15-14.The winning form continued in their triples match against Byfield away 55-33.Highest winning rink was skipped by Denis Ward with Barbara Godfrey, David Adnitt who were 5-5 at eight ends and won comfortably 20-7.Bob Jardine (skip) Tony Hoffman, Heather Brooks were 8-11 down at eight ends but came good at the end to win 17-12.Ron Walton (skip) Peter Godfrey, Carol Bradley were 11-2 at eight ends and although the home team closed the gap they could not prevent the win 18-13 to Southam.The winning streak came to an end although only by one shot away at Daventry Town in their triples match 42-43.Highest winning rink was skipped by Ron Walton with Sheila Lyne, Velisa Brown, Bob Freeman who were 10-8 at eleven ends and held on to win 16-14.Bob Jardine (skip) Aubrey Brown, Sandi Couchman, Heather Brooks had a tight game and won by one shot 12-11Ted Coupe (skip) Sue Thornicroft, Jim Lyne, Carol Bradley were always in catch up losing 14-18.Unbadged Singles:Stuart Dunne had a convincing win at home to beat William Higham 21-4.Jamie Langston was nine shots adrift against Geoff Melling but came back strongly and just lost by one shot 20-21.Stuart Dunne then faced Melling in the next round to win 21-12 and go forward to the last 16.