The latter stages of the national Mixed Pairs and Mixed Fours took place at Northampton at the weekend. In the Mixed Pairs the region had two squads. The Vipers Verity Bennett and Paul Hartley had a tough opener against Ipswich’s daughter and father combo of Katherine Rednall and John Rednall, despite a spirited effort Hartley went down 19-11. Hartlepool’s Dani Martinson and Mark Higgins won their opener against Bounds Green’s Nick Edwards 19-7. A cracking quarter final win over last year’s runners up Westlecot’s Lucy Smith & Scott Edwards set up a smei final against the Rednalls. Sadly that was where the Hartlepool duo’s hoped ended as they lost 21-10, the title eventually went to Welford On Avon’s Amy & Andy Walters who beat the Rednalls 15-14 on an extra end.
The regions hopes in the mixed fours were with the Hartlepool quartet of Sam Richardson, Dani Martinson, Mark Higgins and Gary R Smith however they suffered a 20-15 opening loss to Beecles Mark Cole. The title went to Falaise’s Martin Heitzman who beat Ilminster’s Kirsty Hembrow in the final 19-17.
In the area one final of the Two Bowl singles the Vipers Paul Hartley won a thriller at Darlington 21-20 against Eden’s Anthony Booth Young. Hartley will now head to Nottingham in April to face either Mark Woods (Victoria Street) or Alex Dytham (Dorcester)
The Durham County Seniors have booked a place in the final of the national Over 60 Inter County due to the be held at Nottingham on 2 April. In the semi finals Durham made the trip to Scunthorpe against this time to face Norfolk. Right from the off the Durham lads led and always managed to maintain a fifteen shot advantage, with ends running out Norfolk conceded leaving Durham the 118-93 winners. Across the green Durham won on four of the six rinks and only narrowly lost on the other two. Durham’s pick of the wins came from the rink of Alan Hind (Hartlepool), Mal Peach, John Leeman and Dale Oram (all South Shields Vipers). In the final Durham will face Essex.
The Seniors are back in action this week as they finish off their Midland’s League campaign at Darlington (1230 start). Durham face leaders Yorkshire and need a 19-3 win to leap frog the visitors and finish top of the section. The winners of the section will face Northamptonshire in the end of season play off.
Latest Table – Yorkshire 3-57, Durham 3-43, Lincs (North) 4-10
In the latest round of Inter County Senior fixtures there was a top of the table local derby clash in Division 2 as Houghton Sancroft had home advantage against Houghton Gilpin. The honours went to the Sancroft lads as they ran out 56-26 winners. Colin Watson’s rink of Colin Milburn, Chris Blake and Peter Brickle turned around an early 6-2 deficit against Bob Johnson scoring twenty two shots in an eight end spell en-route to a 24-7 win. Billy Roberts, John Webster, Ian Whorlton and David Wright raced into a 12-1 lead against Dave Robson and never looked back, it finished 22-8. There was some Gilpin joy as the rink of Phil Saunders, P Holliday, Howard Smith and Ron Wilson scored back to back singles over the final two ends to beat Frankie Froud 11-10. So the 4-1 win for Sancroft keeps them top of the table with only Durham A able to knock them off the top, the two meet in the final round of games. Gilpin drop to third after Gateshead beat Ferryhill 4½-½ but a win for Gilpin at Shildon will see them move back into second.
Latest Table – Sancroft 5-20, Gateshead 6-16½, Gilpin 5-15, Durham A 4-12, Shildon 5-8½, Durham B 5-7, Ferryhill 4-6
In Division 1 Stanley cemented their place at the top with a 4½-½ win over Darlington A, with the Vipers game cancelled the Stanley outfit are now six points clear of the Vipers with two games to play. The top two meet in the final round of games in March.
Latest Table – Stanley 5-21, Vipers 5-15, Hartlepool A 4-14, Darlington B 4-13½, Hartlepool B 6-13, The Parks 5-8, Darlington A 6-8, Great Aycliffe 5-7½
The draw for the County sponsored Doshi Pairs has been made. This year has seen the age limited increased to under thirty one.
The draw is as follows -: Niall Thompson (Darlington) v Owain Moss-Wilkin (Great Aycliffe), Matty Ray (Hartlepool) v Layton Sykes (South Shields Vipers), Olivia Lewis (Great Aycliffe) v Marcus Mosley (Hartlepool), Charlotte Williams (South Shields Vipers) v Luke Jameson (West Denton) (Ties to be played by 4 April)
The final WBT UK Open qualifying events were held at Abbey View and Banister Park. At Abbey View Scotland’s Connor Milne booked his place at the UK Open beating fellow Scot Allan Ramsay while Adam White took the Bannister Park place. Both players now progress to the main UK Open at Cambridge & Chesterton which starts on 3 March and ends on 5 March. The Vipers Paul Hartley qualified via the Hartlepool qualifier and will face the fourteenth seed Norfolk’s Merv King in the first round. It will be a repeat of the World Indoor Singles clash at Potters where King came out on top. However Hartley is still harbouring hopes of breaking into the much sort after WBT top sixteen and a win would move him above King.
Following the improved sponsorship deal the World Bowls Tour reintroduced the PBA Tourcard, the top twenty eight ranked men and top four women will be split into two fields of sixteen at either Carlisle or Hartlepool. The winner from each venue is given a Tourcard which gives entry into the three World Bowls Tour event by passing the qualification route giving thme a great chance of breaking into the top sixteen. Locally the Vipers David Bolt & Paul Hartley, Stanley’s Brett Arkley, Cumbria’s Paul Wallace & Trevor Taylor and Hartlepool’s Gary R Smith have all made the top twenty eight cut off.