Avenue Leamington win thrilling Wardrop Cup final

Defending champions Whitnash were beaten by Avenue Leamington in a thrilling Wardrop Cup final.

Another warm afternoon greeted the teams at Nuneaton BC for what proved an afternoon of excellent bowling that saw the title decided by the final two ends of the last discipline to finish.

Whitnash picked up the first point with an impressive 18-4 win by Lewis Gardner over Avenue’s Karl Finch in the Two Wood Singles.

The game looked like it would very close, the Whitnash player one up after five and three up after eight ends but three doubles took him nine ahead.

A single, double and single saw the lead increase to 13 with a possible 14 shots left, and a single on the next end secured an unbeatable 18-4 win for Whitnash.

By the time the Two Woods had finished the Pairs, Triples and Fours had all reached three ends.

The Avenue Pairs were a shot down but hit a five to move ahead before swapping singles and taking a four to move eight up after seven ends.

With 10 ends gone Avenue still led by eight.

In the Triples after three ends Whitnash were also a shot ahead and again Avenue moved ahead with a good spell to lead by five with six ends gone.

This time it was Whitnash that regained the lead with a trio of pairs and a trio of singles to lead by four with 12 ends played.

The Fours also saw Whitnash a shot up after three ends but they pushed on to reach the 11th end five ahead.

While that was going on, Avenue’s Derek Maries was taking on Andy Sparkes (Whitnash) in the four wood singles.

Despite winning the first end it was Avenue that did the early running quickly reaching an 11-3 advantage.

Whitnash took the next end with a single, but Maries closed out the game with a four and three doubles to win 21-4 and level the tie 1-1.

Back in the Pairs a couple of trebles took Avenue’s lead to 14 with 12 ends gone.

The sides exchanged singles before Whitnash conceded, Avenue winning 23-9 and moving ahead 2-1.

In the Fours, Avenue cut the deficit to two shots with 13 ends played but a four followed by a two took Whitnash eight up with three ends left.

An Avenue treble was answered by a Whitnash double, Avenue needing seven in the final end to force an extra end.

They could only take a single, Whitnash winning 19-13 and levelling the tie 2-2.

The deciding factor would be the Triples and with 12 ends gone Whitnash led by four.

Two ends later the scores were level.

A single and treble then gave Avenue a four shot advantage with two ends to go.

The penultimate end saw one of those strange freak occurrences in bowls, a heavy wood striking the jack into another wood and sending the jack back up the green but close to being out.

The Whitnash skip had no other choice than to try to knock the jack out of the rink as most of the shorter wood belonged to Avenue.

His first attempt was tight, his second a fraction too wide and when his last wood also went wide Avenue were left with six shots, enough to give them the win 21-11 with an end to spare and more importantly secure the Wardrop Cup with a 3-2 victory.