Mixed Results for County Men's Teams

There were Mixed fortunes for the two men's reams competing in the Lincolnshire league at the weekend with the "A" Team suffering an agonising one shot defeat away at fellow challengers, Boston and the "B" Team winning at home against Grantham.

‘A’ TEAM LOSE BY ONE IN BOSTON THRILLER

After a match in which more than 80 ends were played and nearly 750 bowls delivered, just one shot separated the ‘A’ teams of Stamford and Boston in a thrilling Lincs League (South) contest.

When Boston skip Dave Gill drew the shot with his last bowl against Chris Ballard’s quartet it left Adam Warrington on the neighbouring rink needing four shots to tie the match overall.

He shunted a colleague’s bowl in for a three count but it proved not quite enough and with a quick glance at the electronic scoreboard it meant his opposition skip Paul Flatters, who had been outstanding in a 21-13 rink win not needing to deliver his last bowl.

The Boston team won 72-71 to take the overall points 10-4 and cement their place as Spalding’s closest challengers with Stamford A in third position.

Stamford had started strongly on an unfamiliarly quick Boston surface leading 31-11 after just five ends and 45-32 after ten of the scheduled 21 ends, thanks chiefly to a flying start by Ballard’s rink of Bob Warters, John Suffling and talented 13 year old prospect Owen Aspinall who led 19-2 at the half way stage against Gill.

The rinks of Martyn Dolby and Roger Martin were also having tight battles against Jim Gott and Scott Whyers respectively and both contributed to a dramatic finale.

But the result hinged on the ability of Warrington’s to close the 12-end, 5-18 deficit against Flatters. They fought hard to picked up five singles in the closing stages but the final three count, as Roger Martin’s rink prevailed, just beyond them.

Result Lincs Men’s League (South): Boston A 72 (10 pts) Stamford A 71(4). Stamford names only: B Warters, J Suffling, O Aspinall, C Ballard won23-14; Mal Smith, D Ford, N Wright, A Warrington lost 13-21; M Humphreys, D Miller, J Earl, M Dolby lost 16-20; R Allam, D Bruce, M Linnell, R Martin won 19-17.

Stamford’s Men’s ‘B’ team lifted themselves off the bottom of the Lincs League (South) table with an impressive 83-74 defeat of fellow strugglers Grantham, claiming ten vital and very welcome points.

With several of his regulars unavailable, captain Pete Linnell was forced to field a handful of fringe players including Howard Neath and Bill Orme making their debut. But all fought hard for the cause and performed well enough to contribute to the team’s overall triumph.

Key to Stamford’s win was the success of the rink of Tony Barwell, Roger Graham, Dennis Henshaw and Dave Heffernan, who beat a Grantham team skipped by former Stamford captain Paul Bailey 29-17.

Pete Linnell, Martin Wallace, Ron Blake and Darren Middleton also won by two shots.

Result South Lincs League (South): Stamford B 83 (10) Grantham 74(4). Stamford names only: P Linnell, M Wallace, R. Blake, D Middleton won 19-17; Mick Smith, K White, D Edward, A McNaughton lost19-21; T Barwell, R Graham, D Henshaw, D Heffernan won 29-17; H Gordon, H Neath, B Orme, M Hewitt lost 16-19.