Bears March into Middleton Cup semi-finals

Devon delight for Bears as national trophy grows closer

Warwickshire’s bowlers marched on into the Middleton Cup Regional semi-finals after beating Devon at Bath BC.

Gardner, Maries and Avery congratulate Wooding on an excellent shot. | Alan Jackson

placeholder image — Gardner, Maries and Avery congratulate Wooding on an excellent shot. | Alan Jackson

A good start by the Bears allowed them to fend off a late fightback from Devon to book their place with an 108-101 victory.

Karl Finch (Avenue Leamington), Jordan Ward (Rugby), Luke Horne and Adam Smith (both Avenue Leamington) had a tight opening half of the game, after nine ends the scores were level.

A four, pair of trebles, a double and a single with just a single in response gave Smith’s rink a commanding 12 shot advantage with three ends to go.

A double for Devon was wiped out by two singles to give the Bears a 22-10 win.

Ewan Mason (Rugby), Steve Merrett (Avenue Coventry), Andy Sparkes (Whitnash) and Tom Millership (Avenue Coventry) raced away to a 10 shot lead in the first five ends, and with nine ends gone the lead was still 10 shots.

A single and a five brought Devon right back into the tie, but Millership and Co did enough to fend of any further fightback to win 19-15.

Andy Prickett (Welford), Sam Shuttleworth (Whitnash), Alan Prew and Dan Box (both Welford) started with a five but the scores were level after six ends.

But a good five end spell saw them regain the lead, now 10 shots up with six ends left.

Devon had the better of the remaining ends, but it was Box and Co that won 23-19.

Jacob Mills, Josh Tiffin (both Rugby), Adam Shuttleworth (Whitnash) and Craig Carter (Rugby) led by five after seven ends but slipped to a two shot deficit with 12 ends played.

A treble, double and single moved them four up with three ends left, Devon halved the deficit but couldn’t deny Carter’s rink the 17-15 win.

Aiden Maries (Avenue Leamington), Will Brundle (Welford), Mark Ireland (Avenue Coventry) and Andy Walters (Welford) started badly, eight shots down six ends.

With two ends to go the deficit had grown to seven but Walters and Co finished with a treble and double to reduce the loss to 16-14.

Keith Avery (Avenue Coventry), Lewis Gardner (Whitnash), Derek Maries (Avenue Leamington) and Keith Wooding (Avenue Coventry) were then 10 adrift at the midway point and two ends later that had increased to 16.

While Wooding’s rink couldn’t overturn the deficit and lost 23-19, they did enough to keep the deficit down to help the Bears to the overall victory.