Dramatic defeat for Lincs in Senior Liberty semi

Post date: Feb 20, 2018 8:18:52 PM

In one of the most dramatic inter-county matches in modern times, Lincolnshire, featuring eight players from the Stamford club, lost to Norfolk in the Senior Liberty Over 60 Knock-out with the last bowl of the final end of a 126-end epic semi-final battle at St Neots.

Norfolk trailed overall 124-125 as the last bowls were delivered in the match involving the Stamford quartet of Alan Romaine, Alan Barnes, Bob Warters and Roger Martin against Mick King's Norfolk rink.

With the rest of the bowlers from each side encouraging from the sidelines, King's rink held two shots, neither of which the Stamford rink were able to remove, earning Norfolk a place in the final at Melton at the end of the month.

Earlier Norfolk had held an overall advantage 33-31 after five ends and 61-57 at half way before Lincs snatched the initiative 87-78 after 15 ends and 108-106 (18) thanks chiefly to the fight back by Brian Hawes' disparate quartet of bowlers from three other clubs who transformed an early 6-17 deficit into a 23-22 victory.

Elsewhere George Draper's Lincoln four edged home 19-16 with Les Feary's regular Boston four eclipsing a Norfolk rink 26-16, which included former international John Ottaway.

But in the end it came down to raw nerve endings as Norfolk's Vic Moore from the Sprowston Hall club trailed the jack to put the match just beyond Lincolnshire's reach.

Result (Lincs names only):

Senior Liberty semi-final (at St Neots) Norfolk 126 Lincs 125. T Powell ( Boston), B Hedges (Spalding), K Jackman (Horncastle), B Hawes (Skegness) won 23-22; G Wood, T Hallam, Mike Smith, G Draper ( all Lincoln) won 19-16; A Romaine, A Barnes, B Warters, Roger Martin (all Stamford) won 23-16; B Reeson, R White (both Boston), J Whithers, M Thompson (both Lincoln) lost 17-26; Mal Smith, D Want, P Edwards, M Dolby (all Stamford) lost 17-30; B Wilson, R Flowers, P Flatters, L Feary (all Boston) won 26-16.

ALL-STAR FINAL

Stamford IBC has been chosen to host an all star Area 5 final of the national pairs on Tuesday, March 27 (6.45pm) featuring Chris Rodgers and world-ranked Les Gillett (Melton) against Spalding's England internationals Matt Whyers & Martin Spencer.

ALLAM OUTSTANDING

Derek King and an outstanding Richard Allam beat Stamford colleagues Paul Dalliday and Neil Wright 15-14 after an extra end in the Federation pairs before King went on to secure a Federation veteran singles semi-final spot against Martyn Dolby with a 21-20 defeat of Peter Cox.

LINCS RINKS KO

Derek King, Dave Heffernan, Richard Allam and Richard Montgomery were beaten 14-19 by Trevor Bannister's rink at Sleaford.