The County Senior Champion of Champion finals were held at Darlington this week. Locally there was Vipers and Houghton interest in both the pairs and fours finals. In the pairs the Vipers duo of Alan Lawton and Dave Paterson came out on top against the host clubs John Hills and Tony Henderson 17-12. The Houghton quartet of Freddie Fletcher, Peter Brickle, Colin Watson and David Wright never got to grips with the Darlington carpet and eventually succumbed to a 19-8 loss against Ferryhill’s Colin Larcombe MBE. The singles was a close fought affair as Gateshead’s Alex Bryden defeated Stanley’s Ian Peacock 21-17. The triples final went to an extra end, the Stanley trio of Jimmy Hutchinson, Michael Barkess and Keith Minnis turned around a 16-11 deficit to force an extra end against the host clubs Mark Jones. It finished 20-20 although Jones did have final bowl to win the game. On the extra end Hutchinson ditched the jack with his final lead bowl and despite three near draws by the Darlington lads it wasn’t enough and Minnis got home 21-20.
Houghton’s hopes of reaching a third consecutive Inter Club play off final were left in tatters as they agonisingly missed out by just half a point. Going into the final group game against leaders The Parks the Houghton squad knew they could only afford one losing rink and a draw, sadly the 6-4 win overall left them just short. At Houghton both home rinks got over the line, David Wright’s quartet of Phil Robinson, Billy Roberts and Bryan Henderson (snr) were always in control against F Scott and romped home 32-10. Tony Grimes, Bob Johnson, Mal Baker and Richie Mckie turned around a 13-8 deficit to get home 18-15, those scores gave Houghton a twenty five shot advantage, more importantly four valuable points. The away squad needed to find a draw from one of the two rinks. Despite a battling performance it was not to be, Jimmy McAdoo was always playing catch up after an early 11-4 score line and did well to finish 16-13 down. Colin Watson’s quartet were also playing catch up and ultimately ended up on the wrong side of a 18-10 score line. Those scores saw The Parks taking the away leg 34-23, the four points were enough to secure a well deserved first play-off final appearance for the North Tyneside lads. In the play off final Darlington will provide the opposition, this after they ended Hartlepool’s chances of a third title defence.
North – The Parks 26½, Houghton 26, Durham 21½, Stanley 8, Gateshead 7
South – Darlington 45, Hartlepool 38, Great Aycliffe 21, Ferryhill 16
In the women’s Home International series at Llanelli England won all three games to regain the title for a forty second time. England opened up with a 43 shot win over Wales and then backed it up with a 69 shot win over Ireland to set up what is usually a winner takes all final decider against Scotland. This time however despite Scotland’s rampant 83 shot win over Ireland they squandered a ten shot lead after nineteen ends against the host country Wales to lose out on the last end 108-107. That result gave England a bit of breathing space going into the auld enemy clash with Scotland needing to win by fifteen shots. In a classic encounter at one stage Scotland led by 11 shots, by the 14th end across the green the lead was still ten shots then came the deciding series moment. On the fifteenth end England scored on all six rinks to level the game off which took the wind out of the Scottish sails and from then on there was only going to be one winner, a 14-3 return in England’s favour over the last two ends saw them home 112-103. Following two heavy defeats it was great to see the Ireland team bounce back as they beat Wales 114-99.
Table – England 6, Scotland 2 (+73), Wales 2 (-57), Ireland 2 (-137)
The region were represented in the British Isles Championships also at Llanelli, the Hartlepool duo of Russell Bewick and Gary Smith narrowly missed out in the pairs losing 20-17 to Scotland’s Andrew Barker and Michael Stepney, the Hartlepool lads collected a good early five but were left to rue a dropped four on end sixteen to trail 18-13. Despite back to back doubles on the final two ends they ran out of ends.
Hartlepool’s Denny Cup dreams are over after an eleven shot semi final loss to Nottingham. Gary R Smith lost 20-13, Marc Squirrell last 25-16, Bryan Henderson won 16-15 and Paul Mosley won 20-16.
Houghton women will finish their Inter club campaign off on Wednesday against Gateshead. The following team has been selected
At Houghton – P Bainbridge, M Eggleston, E Faith, F Phythian, J Watt, A Dale, V Bambrough, J Rodgerson
At Gateshead – M Hall, J Todd, E Morris, N Stephenson, M Godfrey, K Robson, B Robson, J Baker.
The South Shield’s Vipers are in Seniors Inter club quarter final action this week as they head down the A19 to face the unbeaten Hartlepool B. The rest of the play off draw is as follows – Great Aycliffe v Hartlepool A, Darlington B v Darlington A, Stanley v The Parks. – Ties to be played by March 24.
The Durham County selectors have made one change for the Liberty Trophy semi final against Northamptonshire. With the Vipers John Leeman not available club mate Jaxon McKenna moves three to David Bolt while James Sneller returns to the line up in McKenna’s place. The tie takes place at Alfreton on March 22.
The County Under 25’s are also unchanged for their semi final against Warwickshire at Scunthorpe on March 16.
There was some rare good sponsorship news for the sport as the World Bowls Tour confirmed Potters have signed a five year £1m sponsorship of the World Indoor Championships. The deal will also see a return of the UK Open in 2026.