Durham County’s hopes of a run in this season’s Liberty Trophy were dashed as they were beaten 102-65 at Carlisle by a strong looking Cumbria outfit. Last year Cumbria couldn’t field a team and the previous year Durham cruised to a fifty five shot win with over forty ends un-played but the tables were well and truly turned this year. Cumbria flew out of the traps and raced into a thirty shot early lead and that was that, credit to the Durham lads for sticking at the task and got it back to nineteen for a brief minute but things slipped away to over thirty shots again. With thirty ends left and Cumbria thirty seven shots up Durham shook hands. Across the green Durham lost on all six rinks, with Bolt & Hartley at Potters the Durham line up was also missing Josh Minto, Gary Farquahr, Barry Hopkins, Andrew Kirtland and John Leeman. However taking nothing away from Cumbria who were tremendous on the day and will face Lincolnshire next, the latter beat Yorkshire 131-104.
Prior to the Liberty clash two presentations took place, Hartlepool’s Marc Squirrel on his fiftieth Liberty appearance and to his club mate Gary R Smith on reaching his one hundredth appearance, considering the competition is a straight knock out to reach the milestone is testament to Smith’s longevity and the success of the county in the Liberty.
Rink Results (Durham skips first) – J Mansfield 12-15 I Gallagher, A Henderson 7-21 D Pool, GR Smith 12-14 S Farish, M Squirrell 10-17 M Rice, M Higgins 16-19 S Airey, J Halcrow 8-16 M Johnstone
Durham also suffered an exit in the women’s Atherley Trophy which was played at Durham, it was a 119-104 loss to Yorkshire. Durham were always playing catch up, eleven shots down at halfway set the tone for the remainder of the game. Across the green Durham won on two, drew one but suffered a couple of heavy losses.
Rink Results (Durham skips first) – P Carlin 18-18 L Harrison, F Slinn 27-11 J Simpson, A Stafford 16-19 J Wright, J Pattison 8-32 H Chaytor, J Robinson 30-7 E Dayes, M Charles 5-32 M Dykes
Hartlepool’s hopes of retaining the Egham Trophy were dashed as they were beaten 82-61 by Cumbria. At Carlisle Gary R Smith lost 24-15 against Stu Irwin while Mark Higgins got a hard fought 18-18 draw. Back at Hartlepool Marc Squirrel beat Alan Glendinning 21-16 however John Mansfield was well beaten 24-7 by C Warren which sealed the deal for Cumbria. In the Quarter Finals Cumbria will face Spalding Lightning.
There were a couple of good wins for Houghton in the local stage of the nationals. In the fours Colin Milburn, Riche Mckie, Peter Thomson and Patrick Thomson ground out a 19-12 win over West Denton’s Nick Armstrong. The Houghton quartet will host the Vipers David Bolt next. In the Over 60’s Fours Bryan Sanderson, Michael Wright, Colin Watson and Frankie Froud beat the Vipers Billy Ferry 18-15. In the area semi finals the Houghton lads will have home advantage against Stanley’s Brian Harris.
At the World Indoor Championships at the Potters Resort there was more heartache for the Vipers duo of Paul Hartley and David Bolt. An opening win over the New Zealand qualifiers set up a clash against two former world indoor singles champions England’s Mark Dawes and Jamie Walker. The Shield’s lads took the first set 9-7 only to lose the second set 8-4 and go into a three end tie break. The first end saw Bolt play a couple of running bowls only to find the gap on both occasions to lose the end. The second end with one bowl to play each the Shields duo held shot, Walkers final bowl although in the area got a contact and a good result to narrowly hold the shot. Bolt just needed any contact on Hartley’s bowl to take it into a third end however despite Bolt’s final bowl looking on track it missed by the narrowest of margins to end the lads hopes.
Hartley has a second bite at glory as he is also in the singles later in the week and has a massive opener against the number sixteen seed Merv King. Hartley is harbouring hopes of breaking into the elusive top sixteen and a win would be a big boost to his hopes. Two other local lads are also in the singles, Hartlepool’s Mark Higgins will make his first ever appearance on the infamous blue portable rink as he takes on Scotland’s five time world champion Paul Foster MBE. Stanley’s Brett Arkley is also in action, Arkley has been down to Potters a few times so the surroundings will not faze him. In 2011 Arkley reached the last eight, this year Arkley will take on the number thirteen seed and former champion England’s Jamie Walker.
There should be a classic national singles tie at Shields on Friday (6.30pm) as Paul Hartley takes on David Bolt, the game will be live streamed via the Wrongbias Podcast Facebook and YouTube channels.
All club secretaries should have received a copy of the Sunderland & District league fixtures for 2026. The season kicks off on May 2 and ends on September 8. Two new clubs have joined the Sunderland & District, Simonside will play in the Swan Cup while Jarrow West End will play in the Storey Bowl. The draw for the newly introduced Jim Huntingdon Vet’s Super Fives has also been made and should also be with club secretaries. The Grindon League and the women’s SWBA fixtures are yet to be done.
There was more sad news for the local bowls scene as former Roker Park member Eric Hunter (81) sadly passed away. Eric was a popular much respected bowler as well as being a keen competitor and will be missed.