'A' Team Tops County League

With a game in hand on their nearest challengers, Stamford A surged to the top of the Lincs Men’s League (South), deposing Spalding 74-63 and making a solid statement of their intent to retain the county title.

They lead with 48 points from four matches with Spalding and Boston ‘A’ on 47 and 46 respectively, having both played a game more. 

At 13 ends there was only a handful of shots separating the teams but trailing 6-15, the rink of Wayne Aspinall, Ally McNaughton, Kevin Vinter and skip Chris Ballard, suddenly found a thread of inspiration against Danny Mills’ four, chalked up 15 shots in seven ends and raced away to win 21-16.

It put the overall result beyond Spalding’s reach and claimed the 12 points that Stamford needed to earn themselves a pre-Christmas spot on top of the table.

However it wasn’t enough to earn Ballard’s four the rink honours - that went to Trevor Smith, Malcolm Mitchell, Neil Wright and Adam Warrington with a 21-14 defeat of the Stephen Harris’s quartet while former Devon bowler Dave Oakey made his Lincs Men’s League debut in a 19-12 win with Jeff Bourne, Tony Barwell and Trevor Collins against Brian Martin’s Rink.

Lincs Men’s League (South): Spalding 63 (2pts) Stamford ‘A’ 74 (12). Stamford names only: O Aspinall, J Pryor, M Linnell, R Martin lost 13-21; W Aspinall, A McNaughton, K Vinter, C Ballard won 21-16; J Bourne, T Barwell, D Oakey, T Collins won 19-12; T Smith, M Mitchell, N Wright, A Warrington won 21-14.

Elsewhere, Stamford’s second string were on the receiving end of a 35-shot defeat at home at the hands of title-chasing Boston A, conceding 12 of the 14 points at stake.

The visitors were in no mood to be charitable in their last match before the Christmas break and by the halfway stage were 20 shots ahead -  all of them at the expense of Alfie Hynes’ rink who were given a torrid time by Jim Gott’s four, which led 22-1. They moderately recovered but the aggregate points were never in doubt.

Only the quartet skipped by Martin Hewitt which featured Don Bruce, Steve Christie emerged with points thanks to a four count on the last end.

Lincs Men’s League (South): Stamford B 65 (2) Boston A 100 (12). Stamford names only: J Suffling P Shaw, B Orme, D King lost 11-23; D Bruce, S Christie, I Smith, M Hewitt w9n25-19; R Blake, G Clarke, M Dye, D Henshaw lost 17-33; K Rawlins, A Patterson, Dean Wilkinson, A Hynes lost 12-31.