The Durham County Liberty Cup squad made the trip over to Carlisle to face Cumbria in their 2023/24 campaign. This was the ninth consecutive year that the two counties have went head to head with Durham winning on six of those occasions however Cumbria had won the previous two games played at Carlisle. There was however to be no repeat of those results as Durham put in a commanding performance winning 99-41 with 60 ends un-played. Durham won on five rinks and drew on the sixth this despite a few late changes, in came the Vipers duo of Dave Paterson and James Sneller while Cumbria were also hit with four late withdrawals notably Stephen Farish with a back injury. The tone of the game was set by Russell Bewick (Hartlepool), Sneller (Vipers) and the Hartlepool duo of Mark Higgins and Gary R Smith who raced into a 17-0 lead after only four ends against Stu Irwin, by the time the game was conceded Smith led 24-2. Aycliffe’s Jordan Harston and the Hartlepool trio of Alex Portway, Stevie Slaughter and Marc Squirrell also had a cracking win 20-2 against John Baird. The Vipers David Bolt beat Ian Gallagher 11-5 and Hartlepool’s Paul Mosley beat Ken Johnstone 17-7. A Liberty skipping debut for Josh Minto ended in a 10-10 draw with Stu Airey while team captain Paul Hartley turned around a 14-4 deficit to beat Trevor Taylor 17-14. In the quarter finals Durham will face Lincolnshire in the new year.
In the latest round of seniors inter club fixtures the Houghton Sancroft lads went back to the top of their group with a 5-0 home win over South Shields. Stand out result came from Michael Wright, Richie Jobling, Freddie Fletcher and Frankie Froud as they romped to a 35-4 win over Derek Wilson. Joe Sutherland, David Sim, Peter Brickle and Dale Oram ran out 18-6 winners against Keith Taylor, the clean sweep was completed by Stevie Hanlon, Ray Robinson, David Wright and Ian Whorlton who pulled away in the latter stages to beat Bob Craggs 18-10. The 71-20 win means the Sancroft lads end 2023 on top of their group with most probably the group decider against Stanley coming up early January.
In group four there wasn’t such good news for the Houghton Kepier lads as they were beaten 5-0 at Hartlepool B. The game was over by the 6th end as across the green the Hartlepool outfit were 25-4 up with Kepier only winning two of those eighteen ends. Peter Hicks, J Rowland, P Butters and John Twidale went down 17-6 against J Barnes. Alan Ross, P Bambrough, Trevor Joicey and David Armstrong were beaten 24-8 by R Brown. The bad day at the office was completed as R Nicholls, M Maley, Ian Wren and Dave Spottiswood who were beaten 22-5 by A Bridgewater which sealed a heavy 67-19 loss.
There was disappointment for the Houghton ladies in the latest inter club fixture as they were beaten 72-61 by Hartlepool. At Houghton both home squads recorded wins, Joan Watt, Linda Watson, Susan Forster and Joan Rodgerson beat S Pearson 27-16. A fight back by Jaclyn Classen, Pam Bainbridge, Ellen Faith and Val Bambrough saw them turn around a 11-6 deficit into a 17-12 win over J Wilton, that left Houghton 16 shots up in the home leg. Down the A19 the news wasn’t so good, Maureen Hall, Elizabeth Morris, Florence Phythian and Norma Stephenson let slip a 10-6 lead to go down narrowly 12-11 against Janet Ridpath. It was also a tough afternoon for Margaret Godfrey, Pam Ramshaw, Brenda Robson and Joan Baker as they were 18-0 down at the half way mark; they did quell the tide in the second half but still finished 32-6 down against Kay Liddle. That left Houghton 27 shots adrift away and sealed the 11 eleven shot loss.
In the latest round of Top Ten fixtures Houghton beat Ferryhill 8-2, there were wins for Joe Sutherland and Dave Armstrong in the pairs, Chris Blake, Stevie Krimpen and Jimmy McAdoo in the triples and Tony Grimes, Dave Robson, Richard Thorpe and John Buglass in the fours. The only loss saw Pete Thomson battle back from 18-4 down to 18-18 only to drop a three to lose 21-18. Houghton back straight back in action on Saturday as the host Hartlepool
Singles – P Thomson Pairs – S Hanlon, G McPheators Triples – M Baker, P Brickle, J Buglass Fours – J Sutherland, J Cornwaite, D Armstrong, J McAdoo
There was good news for the Vipers David Bolt in the champion of champions, in the area one final Bolt beat Durham’s Alan Bolan 21-7 to secure a place at the latter stages to be played at Dolphin, Poole in February.
There was good news for four local bowlers, following their national senior fours title in 2021 the Jarrow West End based Brett Arkley, Tony Humphries, Alex Bryden and Alan Theobold (main picture – photo credit AS4) representing England made the trip over to Cyprus to land the inaugural Atlantic Senior Fours title. Following a marathon round robin group the English quartet only lost two of the fifteen game schedule. As they finished runners up in the sixteen team group they were handed a semi final against the USA which they negotiated 16-6 to set up a final against the unbeaten South Africa. In the fifteen end final which lasted three hours and with darkness closing in the England quartet sealed the deal with a thrilling 12-11 win. Despite representing England it is worth pointing out they received no finance support from Bowls England but did get supplied with a shirt each although Bowls England were not alone when it came to a lack of financial support. In the women’s event the host country Cyprus beat England 21-6.