The one remaining Sunderland & District final saw the Silver Jack Pairs final at Dairy Lane. It was another Silksworth Puma’s success as Mick Smith & James Sneller ran out 17-15 winners against Hetton Workmen’s Peter Harding & John Purdy. This completes another great season for Pumas, wins in the Burkett Shield & Senior Champion of Champions, 3-2-1 triples and Earl Cup plus County Fours, Junior Singles and part of the Junior Pairs.
The National Championships at Leamington came to a disappointing end for Bowls Durham. After qualifying for the newly introduced Over 60’s Mixed Inter County – Durham faced Northamptonshire in an early morning semi final. The early exchanges across the green saw Durham make a quick start and led 14-4 however things started to go wrong as a couple of Durham rinks started to leak shots. By the half way mark Durham trailed by 14 shots with two rinks a combined 42 shots down, credit to the Durham squad as they dug in and in the latter stages got a head of steam up to get the deficit down to just 4 shots. But just as the number hit four across the green Durham dropped 12 shots and the game was gone as Northants ran out 135-113 winners. Overall Durham ended up winning on two rinks, Dunston’s Alan Theobald 22-15 and Eldon Grove’s Steve Slaughter 28-13. Dairy Lane’s Dale Oram lost on the last end 20-19 and club mate Ken Briscoe went down 25-20. Spennymoor’s Barry Attwood lost 33-13 and Dairy Lane’s Jeff Wilson lost 29-11 which sealed a 23 shot loss. It will be of little consolation to the Durham squad that Northants went on to beat Hampshire in the final.
In the remaining National competitions Durham’s hopes were raised in the Men’s Pairs as both Durham squads reached the last eight. The Darlington RA duo of Mark Ralphs and Andrew Kirtland opened up with a 23-14 win over Warwick’s Steve Smith – this after trailing 11-0. A 21-16 win over Northants Tommy Jaszczun set up a quarter final tie against Kent’s Chris Smith. In a close affair which could have gone either way sadly it went to the Kent pair 16-12.
The other Durham pair was the Silksworth Pumas Jaxon McKenna and David Bolt. After enjoying a first round bye the Silksworth duo had a local derby with Northumberland’s Josh Minto and Chris Yeomans, a 17-5 win then set up another Northern Counties tie this time Cumbria’s Matthew Hodgson. The Silksworth lads ground out a 17-14 win to set up a mouth watering clash with Devon’s Jamie Walker & Jamie Chestney. In a cracking game McKenna and Bolt were level with two ends to play, a dropped double on the penultimate end proved too much as it finished 18-14 in favour of Devon.
In the Men’s Singles Jarrow’s Ian Smith lost his opener 21-9 against Berkshire’s Patrick Hulbert, Seaham Town’s Mark Higgins cruised to a couple of comfortable wins. A first round 21-3 win over Herefordshire’s Marcus Smith was followed by a 21-8 win over Buckinghamshire’s Nathan Nimmo. In the last sixteen against Warwickshire’s Craig Carter the Seaham lad led 5-0 only to find himself 17-5 down, sadly it finished 21-12 to Smith and with both the competition favourites also going out Higgins will be left thinking what might have been.
In the latter stages of the Mixed Fours Abi Porter, Margaret Robson, Peter Coulson and David Warnaby were a tad unlucky to finish on the wrong side of a 16-13 loss to Hampshire’s Perry Martin.
Former Silksworth favourite Keith Avery now plying his trade at the Warwickshire based club Avenue is still demonstrating his draw bowling ability, after early exits in the Men’s Two Bowl singles and Men’s Triples attention turned to the Top Club. In the Quarter Finals with Avery leading in the pairs for Mark Ireland the Avenue club produced a cracking result knocking out the favourites Devon based Kings 3-2. In the semi final Avery again won in the pairs as Avenue won another thriller 3-2 against Cheltenham. In the final against past winners Gerrard Cross Avery lost in the pairs and this time Avenue found themselves on the wrong end of a tough to take 3-2 loss.
As the outdoor season is coming to a close all clubs should have received the entry forms for the 2026 Silver Jacks, Burkett Shield and David Morgan Mixed Pairs. Entry sheets to be handed in at the AGM which will take place on Saturday 15 November (10am) at Houghton Dairy Lane. Any notice of motions for the AGM need to be with the Association Secretary by 15 September.
Final League Tables
Earl Cup D1 – Silksworth Pumas 77, HDL A 58½, HDL B 58, Roker Marine 52½, Barnes Park 49, New Herrington 43, Sunderland 32, Seaham Town 31½, Usworth 30½
Earl Cup D2 – North Biddick 79½, Pemberton 71, Whitburn 66, Hylton CW 62½, Hetton Workmen 58, Thompson Park 54½, South Hylton 48½, Houghton Town 48, Washington 28½, Ryhope 17½
Swan Cup D1 – HDL 56½, New Herrington 56, Barnes Park 48, Roker Marine 37½, Seaham Town 37, Silksworth Pumas 37, Hetton Workmen 35, Usworth 29
Swan Cup D2 – North Biddick 53, Hylton CW 43½, Pemberton 39½, South Hylton 37½, Thompson Park 36½, Houghton Town 24½, Washington 17½
Harold Howey D1 – Barnes Park 43, HDL B 37, HDL A 32, Hetton Workmen 31½, Roker Marine A 28, Seaham Town A* 27, New Herrington B 24, North Biddick 20, Whitburn B 18½, New Herrington A 18½, Hylton CW 12½, South Hylton 10½, Roker Marine B 5½ (*denotes deducted 4 points)
Harold Howey B – Pemberton A 40½, Washington B 39½, Sunderland B 38, Usworth 35½, Thompson Park 27½, Houghton Town 25, Whitburn A 24½, Ryhope 24, Pemberton B 23, Roker Park 22, Sunderland A 21, Seaham Town B 16½, Washington A 16, Chester le Street 11
Storey Bowl – Seaham Town 73½, New Herrington 56½, Thompson Park 49, Hylton CW 40, Houghton Town 38½, Hetton Workmen 36½
Grindon League – Silksworth Pumas 27½, Usworth 23½, Pemberton 23½, New Herrington 21, HDL 15½, North Biddick 12, South Hylton 10, Hylton CW 7
The draw for the EIBA Denny Cup has seen South Shields Vipers paired against Houghton.