Dolby reaches unprecedented five indoor county finals

Post date: Mar 2, 2016 3:40:11 PM

CURRENTLY enjoying a rich vein of form, Martyn Dolby has set a new record by reaching the indoor final of five Northants Bowling Federation competitions.

And he is a strong favorite to challenge in multi events when the national championship take place at Newark in April.

A former police officer, Dolby (67) will be almost literally handcuffed to the county finals at Peterborough on Sunday, March 13 for nearly seven hours as he competes in all five sessions from 10am, and which feature many other Stamford Indoor bowls club members in all but a couple of events.

After winning the semi-final of the 2-bowl triples with Adam Warrington and Jonathan Earl (beating Howard Shipp, Nick Wilkie and Joe Randall 20-19 after an extra end), he joined Warrington and Christine Ford in a 28-13 mixed triples defeat of clubmates Shirley Suffling, Derek King and Richard Allam.

A 24-7 mixed pairs win with Ford against Suffling and King followed, before wrapping up a Veterans Singles win against City's Mick Linnell 21-15 (he was 0-11 behind at one stage) to earn a final against Peter Edwards who beat Doug Want 21-16 after being 8-14 adrift.

Dolby, a four-time Federation national championship winner, finally joined Warrington in the pairs to beat Neil Wright and Howard Shipp 15-11 and set up a final against Wilkie and Randall.

Said Dolby: "I am delighted to have reached so many finals - not just for myself but for the Stamford indoor club, which has so many other representations on the day. It just shows that we are a club on the up.

"I never imagined I would reach so many finals; when you enter you just hope you can reach at least one. I hope my body stands up to the commitment. It's a lot to play in one day."

Apart from Dolby, Stamford players will dominate the county finals, with two more of its senior age group bowlers contesting the blue riband four-bowl singles.

Following the 21-19 defeat of the holder Simon Law by Derek King, former veteran singles champion Doug Want, out-foxed Law's national outdoor EBA triples-winning partner James Harford 21-12.

Against Law, King established his early domination and after trailing 6-7 racked up threes on the 9th, 11th and 15th ends to lead 17-10. The City bowler fought back to take five successive ends and lead 19-17 before the retired Creeton farmer rolled in successive twos to clinch it. Against 25-year-old Harford, Want rarely looked in trouble and ran out a comfortable winner.

In the mixed pairs John and Moira Holroyd reached the final with a 20-17 defeat of former winners Nick Wilkie and Joan Robinson at Peterborough. A maximum four count on the fifth end gave them a 7-2 lead, then they added nine in four ends to lead 20-10 before Wilkie and Robinson rallied with 12 shots in six ends.

Tony Scarr and Trevor Collins lost 19-12 in the two-bowl pairs against Wilkie and Randall - the last two ends crucial when they dropped five shots.

Of the four women's events, two will be all-Stamford affairs - the two-bowl triples and the Senior Singles, where Suffling meets county president Joan Robinson.

FOOTNOTE: Refreshments, including cooked food, will be available at Peterborough IBC during the finals.

(full draw and timings to be published on Monday)