There was some good news for the region at the British Isles Championships down at Llanelli. The Hartlepool quartet of Amica Fordy, Sam Richardson, Dani Martinson and Lauren Mosley lifted the women’s fours title for England. Having avoided the prelim the Hartlepool outfit overcame Ireland’s Shauna O’Neill in the semi final 24-15. In the final they tackled Scotland’s Caroline Brown, after sixteen ends Mosley looked in complete control leading 20-10 only to drop nine shots over the next four ends to see the lead wiped out at 20-19 with one end to play. On a nervy last end Mosley regrouped and grabbed a single to secure the title 21-19. It was a good few days for England hopes as Katherine Rednall took the women’s singles, Sam Tolchard completed a triples and fours double and Steve Evan’s landed the senior fours title. England secured the overall team Gedling Trophy.
The final event at Llanelli was the men’s Home International series with England looking to complete a clean sweep having already won the women’s series plus both Under 25 series. England were stopped in their tracks in their opener against the host’s Wales, despite leading by 10 shots in the early stages England couldn’t get away and the hosts bounced back to lead by 14 shots at the 18th end mark, a late England charge just fell short and the Welsh celebrated a 99-98 win. England did bounce back in their second game with a 139-93 win over Ireland. With Scotland having beaten both Ireland and Wales it left England needing a 12 shot win to overtake Scotland. As expected it was a tight affair with the scores level after 13 ends, any hopes of a clean England sweep were quickly squashed as Scotland broke away. A 17-6 Scotland return over the next set to two ends was enough to get a lead which they never let go and ran out 104-97 winners to take the series unbeaten.
Locally the Vipers duo of Paul Hartley who was moved up to third bowl to club mate David Bolt; both performed creditably. Against Wales they were beaten 17-11 by Carl Wood, against Ireland’s Stephen Kirkwood they got over the line 25-22 and were a tad unlucky to miss out on the last end against Scotland’s Paul Foster MBE 17-16.
The Durham County seniors gained revenge in the Midland’s League play off final as they turned the tables on Northamptonshire running out 115-113 winners. Durham were always double digits ahead but had to withstand a late Northants charge. Across the green the Vipers Dale Oram steered his rink of Alan Hind (Hartlepool), Mal Peach (Vipers) and Aycliffe’s Barry Attwood to a 25-11 win.
It was a case of ‘what could of been’ for the County young guns as they played their under 25 double fours semi final against a strong experienced Warwickshire squad at Scunthorpe. Following their quarter final success over last year’s runners up Lincolnshire the Durham line up was unchanged. The Vipers Layton Sykes lead in for Conrad Morrison with Matthew Mosley at second and Alex Wood third were always going to be up against it, pitted against England international Tom Holmes who had fellow international and current outdoor woman’s singles champion Izzy White alongside Lily-Mae Adams and Hannah Smith completing the quartet. It was the Warwickshire four who came out the blocks fast racing to a 15-2 lead after nine ends.
The other Durham four, Hartlepool’s Amica Fordy fresh from her British Isles fours success led in for Niall Thompson with his Darlington club mate Abi Porter at two and Hartlepool’s Marcus Mosley third got off to a slow start against Aden Maries trailing 10-6 after nine ends leaving Durham 17 shots adrift the half way mark. The Durham young guns fought hard over the next few ends to stay in the game, the fight back started on the 16th end as Durham scored 7 shots across the two rinks. That was the encouragement the octet needed and the momentum swung, a return of 23-4 in Durham’s favour set up a nail biting finale. The Thompson quartet who were two ends ahead picked up two counts of five in their final few ends but were left to rue a fortunate result for the Warwickshire’s skips final bowl which clipped a wide bowl into the head removing the Durham shot bowl and sneak a treble leaving Thompson 25-21 up. That result left the other Durham rink searching for four shots over his last two ends, after narrowly missing a shot which could of scored a four or five Morrison had to settled for a two and search for a repeat on the final end. As expected the nerves and tension were at an all time high, a place in the National final was up for grabs Durham lying shot with just the skips left to play; Warwickshire skip Holmes fresh from his England senior debut only 48 hours previously drew a close second shot and closed the head down narrowing the distance Morrison had with his final bowl and that was enough as the young Durham skip fell two foot short to finish 22-17 down leaving Warwickshire 43-42 up overall. In the final Warwickshire will play Kent who overcame Hampshire 46-27.
Houghton’s women ended their Inter Club campaign on a high beating Gateshead 9-1 and by twenty five shots overall. Both home rinks recorded wins, Florence Phythian guided Pam Bainbridge, Margaret Eggleston and Ellen Faith to a 23-7 win over J Diball. Jean Watt, Ann Dale, Val Bambrough and Joan Rodgerson recovered from 13-4 down to beat Maureen Charles 23-16 to give Houghton a twenty three shot advantage. Over at Gateshead Joan Bakers rink of Margaret Godfrey, K Robson and Brenda Robson ground out a 16-13 win over P Wright. Norma Stephenson’s quartet were unlucky to lose 15-14 to S Tennet.
Durham return to Liberty action on Saturday as they head to Alfreton to tackle Northamptonshire in the semi final.