Over 60s Double Rinks topple English champions

Post date: Nov 2, 2015 5:49:37 PM

Stamford bowlers caused one of the upsets of the season, when the club's A team dumped the current national champions from Boston out of the Over 60s Double Rink competition.

With a rink of four playing at Stamford and one at Boston, the home team, skipped by Martyn Dolby, snatched four shots on the 21st final end to edge home 21-19, having earlier trailed 0-10 after five ends.

It left Roger Martin's rink at Boston with only a slender two shot advantage against Mick Tomlin when they started their match two hours later.

However, with Martin paired with Bob Warters, Derek King and late replacement John Little, they quickly extended the lead to seven shots after five ends (leading 6-1) before Boston narrowed the gap to three after 15 ends (12-11).

The turning point came on the 16th and 17th ends when Stamford picked up four shots and a single, leaving Boston chasing the game and needing eight in the last three ends to force extra time. A single and a four put the game beyond reach.

Stamford A now play Skegness B by November 27.

Result (Stamford names only):

National Over 60s Double rink: Stamford A 43 Boston 32. Home - Alan Romaine, Dave Hudson, Peter Edwards, Martyn Dolby bt B Wilson, G Hardstaff, J Gott, P Flatters 21-19; away - Bob Warters, John Little, Derek King, Roger Martin bt R Flowers, B Reeson, K French, Mick Tomlin 22-13.

After a nail-biting tussle with local rivals Melton & District IBC, Stamford reached the second round of the national inter-club bowls championship for the Denny Cup claiming the winning aggregate in a home and away tie 80-78.

The reward is another derby clash, this time with Spalding, in two weeks time on November 14, two rinks at home, two away.

At Melton the match score overall looked to be heading for a draw, demanding a one end shoot out should the scores remained tied - indeed Keith Rippin had already killed the first extra end played - when news came through that Martyn Dolby had drawn the winning shot on the final end to put the match beyond Melton's reach.

Said team captain Adam Warrington: "Martyn and his rink played exceptionally well and with all other rinks finished and a match lie against him, drew the shot to a displaced jack for the win. Our rink was steady and was never going to lose despite a bad start."

Result (Stamford names first)

Denny Cup: Stamford 80 but Melton 78. Home - Dave Hudson, John Holroyd, Adam Warrington, Peter Edwards won 24-20; Stephen Harris, Wayne Morris, Jonathan Earl, Martyn Dolby win 23-15; Away - Alan Romaine, Mick Humphreys, Bob Warters, Roger Martin won 20-16; Richard Allam, Cliff Watson, Derek King, Keith Rippin lost 13-27.

Stamford's women's county league team made a promising start to their winter programme losing by only 11 shots to local rivals Boston, and conceding 12 pts.

In this first home game of the Trudy Bates League campaign, it was a chance to try new combinations ahead of the forthcoming Yetton Trophy inter-club match against Spalding, one of the title favourites.

Sue Moir, supported by Betty Sims, Stella Henshaw and Pauline Dixon emerged as the top rink with a 23-14 win, while Joan Robinson's quartet got off to a flying start and held on gamely to collect two more vital points.

Result (Stamford names only)

Trudy Bates Women's League: Stamford 88 (4pts) Boston 97 (12). J Gamble, J Dupree, A Cullingworth, F Rogers lost 10-22; R March, C Warters, M Bloxham, J Robinson won 19-17; J Brennan, M Broadbelt, S Suffling' C Ford lost 13-18; B Sims, S Henshaw, P Dixon , S Moir won 23-14; J Foster, A Northen, P Birch, G Edwards lost 23-26.

Result of the week in EIBA national competitions was the exceptional mixed pairs win by Christine Ford and Keith Rippin over England internationals Rebecca Simpson and Graham Smith at Spalding.

The duo surprised their opponents with a 25-14 result which has really shaken up the Area 6 competition, traditionally one of the toughest. They now entertain either Adrian Field (Boston) or Matthew Orrey (Grantham).

Said Christine: "We decided the best way was to do nothing fancy and concentrate on our drawing. Once we went 7-4 up we never looked back. Picking up five on the 15th end when Graham fired and missed, settled it."

In an exciting finish to their national Over 50s Triples match, the new combination of Bob Warters, Tony Scarr and Roger Martin, earned a place in the third round against John Needham (Spalding) with a 17-16 defeat of Martin Simpson's trio from the same club.

But it took an extra 19th end to separate them after the Stamford trio claimed two shots on the 18th end to square the match. Earlier they had squandered a 10-2 lead but credit to Simpson who made some telling conversions before Scarr, a former three times national finalist in this event and who joined Stamford from Peterborough this season, drew two shots close in the shoot out.

At Sleaford, Malcolm Cullingworthm Richard Allam and Derek King were unlucky to go out of the same event against what some might describe as ' an 'unfortunate deflection' (while others might see it differently) when holding a potentially match-winning advantage!

Elsewhere in the Over 60s singles,Tony Barwell beat Steve Traynor 21-14 at Sleaford and Ray Keating toppled John Maury by a similar score. However, Graham Wright (Spalding) got the better of John Pearson and Stephen Harris lost 21-9 at Boston against Jonathan West in the men's singles.