Outgunned in the Denny Plate

It has been more than 20 years since St Neots, the Cambridgeshire indoor bowls club, faced Stamford in a national team competition.

Since their 2001 visit, much has changed in the way the bowls is played. Bowlers often arrived in blazers and wore identical white shirts, grey or white trousers and brown shoes. The only way to tell the teams apart was by compulsorily-worn club ties, which matched the stickers on either black or brown bowls.

Back then, indoor bowls was chiefly a game of drawing to the jack on a surface ill-suited to the strong bias bowls used on outdoor greens.

How times have changed with multi-coloured bowls, designed to take a more direct line to the jack complimented by multi-coloured shirts, shoes and even shorts!

The game has become more assertive, too. While there is still room for the draw shot, the Neots players wasted little opportunity to ‘kill the head’ or more likely drive the jack into the ditch when the opportunity presented itself.

And that illustrated the 64-90 shot difference in the end. Apart from a handful exceptions, Stamford players tried to draw themselves out of trouble, while their opponents took the attacking route.

The home rink of Mick Humphreys and Wayne Morris,  creating an outstanding foundation, for Neil Wright and skip Adam Warrington, were Stamford’s only winners in a 26-15 victory, while Roger Martin’s four lost by an identical score.

The away rinks found it a tougher proposition on an unfamiliar slick St Neots surface. Simon Law’s four started promisingly by taking an unexpected early lead but lost early momentum. Jon Earl’s rink, meanwhile - featuring 14 year old Owen Aspinall - never recovered from a 15-shot deficit after five ends.

However, it was a heartening performance by Stamford to make deep inroads into the competition and it leaves the way open for some of the club’s promising newcomers, hopefully encouraged by more experienced heads, to sharpen their skills for next season’s campaign. 

St Neots, meanwhile, in their modern red and black outfits and not a black bowl in sight, established themselves as one of the favourites to contest the finals in Nottingham in April.

END OF YETTON RUN

Stamford’s women bowlers also came to a full stop in their bid to break new ground in the Yetton Plate following their defeat of Skegness, hampered by late changes through illness and injury.

Marilyn Christie and Rita Downs were replaced by Vanessa Shackleton and Ann White.

But Chesterton were in no mood to allow their new opponents any favours, winning on all four rinks both at home and away.

At Cambridge, the rinks skipped by Sue Moir and Moira Holroyd were always on the back foot, their campaign stalling at the halfway mark when they trailed by nine and a single shot respectively. 

Stamford rinks were holding their own at a similar stage but the visitors eventually stamped their authority and stretch the overall shots difference to 37 by the time the match was conceded.

Yetton Plate: Stamford 57 Cambridge Chesterton 94. Stamford names only. Home - Janet Lonslow, Peggy Birch,  Ann White, Chris Ford lost 17-21; Janet Dye, Vanessa Shackleton, Stella Henshaw, Denise Mackie lost 18-23. Away -  Rosemary Roberts, Miriam Hulbert, Shirley Suffling, Sue Moir lost 12-27; Val Du’Kett, Ann Northen, ElIzabeth Wallace, Moira Holroyd lost 10-23.

SENIOR LINE-UP

Stamford Senior bowlers entertain Sleaford in the Lincs Over 60s League (South) on Wednesday (10.30 am) with the following team: J Bourne, M Owens, Mick Linnell, B Warters; G Patrickson, Geordie King, M Hewitt, K Vinter; Pete Linnell, Derek King, Peter Smith, R Martin; T Barwell, D Bruce, P Burt, J Holroyd. Res R Blake, C Jones, S Miner.

HARRIS SELECTED FOR ENGLAND AGAIN

Stephen Harris, who plays his domestic bowls at Stamford IBC and his national competitions at Spalding, has retained his place in the England team contesting the international series against Ireland, Scotland and Wales at Falcoln IBC (Chelmsford) from March 14-16.

Harris, who helped Spalding Lightning to victory in the latest round of the Denny Cup at Huntingdon on Saturday, leads a rink with Martin Puckett and former world singles champions Les Gillett and Greg Harlow.

His Spalding clubmates Graham Smith and Dominic McVittie also came through the trials.

The call-ups follow the earlier selection of Ollie Jeapes, for England's Under 18 Team. Jeapes like Harris plays his domestic bowls at Stamford whilst playing for Spalding in the Nationals, 

The Under 18 Internationals will take place at Sully Indoor Bowls Club, in Wales, over the weekend of January 13 and 14.

The talented youngster was selected as travelling reserve last season and impressed when he was subbed in later in the series which no doubt contributed to his selection this season.

The England women’s team will also include three Spalding players - Ruby Hill, who has also been called up to skip a rink for England Under 25s, Chelsea Spencer and Annie Dunham, who has also qualified to play in the televised Women’s World singles at Potters Resort in January.