Warwickshire Bears left bruised by Northants
Opening defeat in Mixed Over 60s Trophy
Warwickshire Bears opened their campaign in the Mixed Over 60s Trophy by welcoming defending champions Northamptonshire to Royal Leamington Spa BC, looking for revenge for being knocked out by them last year.
Unfortunately Northants proved too strong, beating the Bears 116-80.
Liz Wooding (Avenue Coventry), Geoff Millership (Nuneaton), Debbie Bloxham (Stratford) and Pete Harwood (Nuneaton) started well, racing to a seventeen shot lead which included a six, five and four at the midway stage.
Northants had the better of the second half, limiting the Bears to three singles, but could only reduce the deficit, Harwood’s rink winning 23-13.
Dawn Horne, Anita Cowdrill (both Royal Leamington Spa), Rob Maries (Avenue Leamington) and Mal Evans (Sherwood Park) started well but could never break clear from their opponents, reaching the ninth end three shots up.
The teams exchanged shots before a brace of doubles took Northants one shot up, Evans and co replying with their own pair of doubles before swapping singles to win 15-12.
Gillian Greenbank, Ros Taylor (both Avenue Coventry), Chris Brereton (Welford) and Gary Langford (Sherwood Park) picked up just two shots in the first eight ends, dropping a six and four to trail by 13.
With four ends left the deficit was down to 10, but a treble for the visitors took it back to 13.
A good last three ends that started with a five helped cut the deficit but couldn’t stop Brereton’s rink losing 21-16.
Sandra Dean (Warwickshire County Council Staff), Joy Cooke (Sherwood Park), Andy Prickett and Martin Timms (both Welford) dropped a fourth end four but were only two down after six ends.
A good spell for Northants took them 11 up after 11 ends. Timms and co had the better of the remaining ends but finished 18-9 down.
Rob Corp (Sherwood Park), Jenny Wickens (Royal Leamington Spa), Maureen Edwards (Thornfield) and Howard Wilkins (Oakfield) were limited to just two shots in the first half, trailing by 10.
A balanced second half saw Wilkins and co lose 21-10.
Caroline Edwards (Royal Leamington Spa), Gill Maund (Sherwood Park), Bruce Truman (Rugby Rail) and Steve Taylor (Avenue Coventry) failed to score in the first seven ends, trailing by 13.
They opened their account with a four but were limited to just a double and single in the remaining ends, the final score 31-7 to Northants.