In the Egham Trophy Hartlepool are still on course to repeat the 2021/22 (pictured) national success as they eased past Solihull 88-56 in the semi final played at Scunthorpe. Across the green Hartlepool won on three rinks and drew on the fourth. Bryan Henderson beat G Sollier 23-11 and Gary R Smith beat new England international Tom Holmes 24-12, Paul Mosley beat the talented England star Emily Kernick 22-14 while Marc Squirrell ground out a 19-19 draw with Ben Harris. The win sets up a cracking final against Torquay Utd in April at Nottingham after the latter beat Falaise 76-61 in the other semi final.
There was disappointment for the Durham County Liberty Trophy squad as their hopes of another Liberty final were left in tatters. In the semi final against Northants at Alfreton the Durham lads were always playing catch up from the off and ultimately succumbed to a 116-97 loss. Across the green Durham won two, drew one and lost on three, the pick of the bunch was the Vipers David Bolt’s rink who registered a sixteenth consecutive Liberty rink win, alongside club mates Layton Sykes, Mal Peach and Jaxon McKenna the Viper quartet beat Paul Broderick 24-11. The all Darlington rink of Keith Burton, Barry Hopkins, Andrew Henderson and Andrew Kirtland battled away to get home 14-13 while the Vipers Gary Farquhar had to settle for a 20-20 draw after leading 8-1. Hartlepool’s Stevie Slaughter narrowly lost by a couple but it was a tough afternoon for the Vipers Josh Minto who lost 29-8. The remaining rink skipped by the Vipers Paul Hartley never recovered from trailing 11-1 and finished 23-13 down against former Cumbrian Gavin Taylor. The loss maybe welcomed in some quarters but considering the early off the green issues the squad did well to reach the semi finals. Northants will face Essex in final after Essex beat Berkshire 103-45. Holders Essex will be hoping history repeats itself as they try to match last year’s first Liberty success.
The County Champion of Champions finals were held at Hartlepool and the host club pick off three of the four titles on offer. The first of the three titles came in the singles where Paul Mosley repeated his 2022 win this time beating Stanley’s James McKenna 21-15. The second host club success came in the pairs when Michael Laydon and Mark Higgins won a thriller 14-13 against Gateshead’s Tommy Calder. Then in the triples Laydon & Higgins teamed up with Stevie Slaughter to take the triples 23-5 against Durham’s A Coulson. Hopes of a Hartlepool clean sweep were dashed in the fours as Darlington’s Glen Skipp, Alan Lambert, Andrew Henderson and Colin Boston beat John Wells 15-13.
The County Inter Club Play Off final was held at Ferryhill at the weekend, the north group winners The Parks in their first playoff final were up against the south group winners Darlington. In a one sided final Darlington ran out 84-24 winners winning on all four rinks to secure a first inter club title since 2015.
Three of the four Senior Inter Club Play Off ties have been played, Stanley beat The Parks 38-28, Darlington B beat Darlington A 50-31 and Hartlepool B beat The Vipers 45-33. Holders Hartlepool A have yet to play Great Aycliffe, there will not a be repeat of an all Hartlepool final, depending on the Aycliffe result the winner will face Hartlepool B in the semi finals.
Houghton’s Ian Armstrong and Jimmy McAdoo secured a place in the Gateshead Open Pairs Grand finals day on 6 April.
As the indoor season enters the final few weeks the Houghton Indoor AGM and presentation will take place on 26 April at 10am. Any notice of motions need to be with the club secretary by 1 April. Across the fourteen internal leagues there are currently forty five vacancies. There are also plans to run a summer jumbles during the outdoor season, anyone interested details can be found on the notice board.
The first of the Houghton club finals will take place on Monday 31 March, in the Over 60’s singles Colin Watson will face Bryan Sanderson, the Over 60 triples final will also take place. Peter Thomson, Mal Baker, Frankie Froud will play Freddie Fletcher, Peter Brickle and David Wright, both finals start at 1030am.
As the outdoor season starts to appear the Sunderland & District are doing a recruitment drive, seventeen of the twenty clubs will be hosting a free Open Day for the public from 1.30pm to approx 4pm. Its aim is to try and attract the general public onto the greens and sample the sport in the hope they get the “hook” and comeback for more then maybe even join one of the various clubs.
The Bowls Durham County competition draws have been released, a massive seventy seven entries in the singles north section. Some of the eye catching ties are the Pumas Jaxon McKenna hosting Barnes Park’s Bryan Sanderson, Dairy Lane’s Steve Hanlon hosts former club mate and now plying his trade out of the Pumas Mal Peach, the four time county champion Pumas David Bolt heads to Leadgate.
In the pairs the holders Pumas Jaxon McKenna and David Bolt open there title defence at home to Lyndhurst’s Paul Langley. Dairy Lane’s Dale Oram hosts the Pumas Scott Baker and New Herrington’s Colin Watson makes the trip to Jarrow to tackle Alan Lawton. Bolts title defence in the triples will start at Dairy Lane against Ken Briscoe.
In the women’s draw, the current singles champion Dairy Lane’s Susan Forster is taking a year off the county competitions so it is left to club mate Glynis Morgan to fly the Dairy Lane flag. The defending senior fours of Maureen Hall, Evelyn Barkes, Karen Sinclair and Norma Stephenson head to Pelton Fell to face Joan Brown. Somewhat disappointingly there are no Sunderland based entries in the champion of champions which just highlights the decline in the women’s game around the Sunderland area.