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Competition Finals

Secretary's Pairs

The final of the Secretary’s Pairs competition was played at Langtoft on Saturday 26th August. This is a new League competition, with a trophy donated by Stamford League Secretary Nina Rawlins. The finalists were Richard Lambert and Jonny Abbott (from Market Overton) and John Cox and Peter Cozens (from Greetham Valley).

Thunder rolled as the match started and, by the fourth end, it was raining intermittently. The Greetham Valley pair started confidently and were 6-2 ahead by the sixth end. On-form Greetham Valley skip John Cox was holding shot in the 7th end, so Richard Lambert and Jonny Abbott swapped positions with Richard taking over as lead. Market Overton began to recover, winning the next three ends.

After 12 ends, the rain became heavier so, with the score at 9-6 to Greetham Valley, play was interrupted for 5 minutes until the rain began to ease. After the break, the Market Overton pair were holding until John Cox took out the shot wood, leaving Greetham Valley three up. This could have been the ‘kiss of death’ for Market Overton as they were 12-6 down, but they dug deep into their reserves to win the next four ends, including scoring a 3 in the 15th end.

After the 17th (penultlmate) end, the score was 12-12. Nerves began to tell; Market Overton had favoured short jacks throughout the game, but this time Richard Lambert sent the jack too short, ceding the advantage to Peter Cozens, who put down his preferred longer jack. Both leads struggled to get close to the jack on the wet green, but Jonny Abbott made shot with his first bowl. And that was it – John Cox put his wood in for second, but Market Overton held on to their single point, winning the title 13-12. This was an excellent game between two closely-matched teams and could have gone either way.

Boor & Wainwright Shield

Bourne Woods (Division 2) met Stamford Town D (Division 3) in the final of this handicapped competition played at Langtoft this Sunday, 27th August. Stamford Town D had an eighteen point advantage (6 points per rink) because of the handicapping system, which depends on the positions of the teams at the end of the previous season.

The Bourne team were on top form, managing to match the handicap points after a few ends, then forging ahead to win the title. Bourne pressed their advantage by scoring 2s and 3s in most ends, in contrast with the single points scored by the Stamford team. Of particular note was the success of the team on rink 1, with Bourne Woods scoring a hot-shot (6 shots) in the 12th end followed by two 5s in the 17th and 18th ends. The final score was 103-38.

The players were (Stamford Town first):

Rink 1: Graham Patrickson, John Renshaw and Linda Starbuck v Julian Wheel, Peter Bagworth and John Pearson.

Rink 2: Jan Marshall, Miriam Hulbert and Dennis Starbuck v Julie Allen, Peter Burt and Steve Buffery.

Rink 3: Marilyn Christie, Steve Christie and Paul Wakefield v Val Thompson, Alec March and Chris Davidson.

Congratulations to all those who took part in an enjoyable afternoon. The League would like to extend its thanks to Langtoft Bowls Club, who were excellent hosts for both these finals.

2-3 September

This was an outstanding weekend for local bowls, with two finals taking place – the Oddfellows Rose Bowl on Saturday 2nd September and the Duncomb Shield on Sunday 3rd September. Both finals were hotly contested, with a very high standard of play. Even the weather co-operated and contributed to making the atmosphere on both occasions everything that is best about outdoor bowling, for bowlers and spectators alike. The League thanks Blackstones Bowls Club and Bourne Town Bowls Club for hosting these two events and helping to make both finals so memorable.

Oddfellows Rose Bowl

The final was played between Blackstones and Oakham at Blackstones Bowls Club. The competition was fierce between the two teams, with Blackstones being the eventual winners, beating Stamford by 59-45.

On Rink 1, Wayne Morris, Darren Russell and skip Sam Downs (Blackstones) faced Graham Scothern, Paul Jenkinson and Ray Gregory (Oakham). Blackstones took advantage of playing on their home green to forge ahead until they were 11-2 up after 8 ends. Then Oakham began to fight back, scoring 2 on each of the next three ends. With the score at 12-8 to Blackstones, skip Sam Downs swapped with Wayne Morris to try to slow down Oakham’s progress and it worked – just! With a dead end in the sixteenth, Blackstones managed to hold on to their lead to win by the closest of margins, 14-13.

Rink 2 saw Rita Downs, Mal Smith and Darren Middleton (Blackstones) playing Eddie Owen, Denis Smith and Stuart Primarolo (Oakham). The Blackstones team dominated throughout the match, in spite of Oakham’s skip taking out 4 of their opponent’s shots in the 4th end and Oakham resorting to shorter jacks whenever they had the opportunity. Blackstone’s victory was sealed by a 5 in the 16th end, with the final score being 23-12. 

There was no such thing as home advantage on rink 3, with the Oakham team of Graham Cole, Matthew Murrant and Paul Murrant storming ahead to a lead of 10-2 after 6 ends over Blackstone’s Dusty Miller, Mike Owen and Terry Smith. Blackstones had to dig deep to come back, bringing the score to 9-10 by the 9th end. Oakham dominated the next five ends, so that they were 20-10 up after 14 ends. Then it was Blackstones turn, increasing their total, so that after the 17th (penultimate) end the score was 16-20 in Oakham’s favour but, in a killer final end, Blackstones scored 6, giving them a winning total of 22-20.

Duncomb Shield

The final of the Duncomb Shield was played at Bourne Town Bowls Club. There were eight teams in the final who played in a round-robin format: Greetham Monarchs, Wittering A, Greetham Valley B, Market Overton C, Empingham, Wittering B, Stamford Town B and Greetham Royals. The teams selected 3 out of 4 named players for each 6-end game.

Market Overton C won their first four games (of 7) accumulating a total of 28 points out of a possible 36, putting them 4 points ahead of their nearest rival, Wittering B. However, they thought they had blown it after losing their 5th and 6th games, with Empingham creeping one point ahead on 34 points to Market Overton’s 33. Empingham suffered a heavy loss in their final game, whereas Market Overton scored 6 points, bringing their total to 39 points and making them the overall winners.

Runners-up were Wittering B, who won 4 of their 7 games, scoring a total of 36 points. They were closely followed by Empingham and Stamford Town B, both on 35 points, with Empingham just edging ahead on score difference.