Stamford bowlers in Senior Liberty triumph

Post date: Jan 24, 2018 6:25:03 AM

Eight Stamford bowlers featured in the Lincolnshire team which this week reached the semi-final of the national Senior Liberty (Over 60s) Trophy, beating Yorkshire in a nail-biting finish.

With three, four-man rinks playing at Stamford and three simultaneously at York, it was always going to be a tense match against old rivals over 21 ends and after four hours of highly charged competition it came down to a one bowl decider.

Lincs away squad had given the county a 10-shot advantage and thanks to an outstanding 24-17 win by the Stamford quartet of Alan Romaine, Doug Want, Peter Edwards and Martyn Dolby and only a narrow defeat for Les Feary's Boston rink, the county held a fragile six shot lead going into the last end of Roger Martin's match.

With one bowl left, Yorkshire skip John Whitely had a chance trail the jack to tie the match but under intense pressure missed by centimetres to leave Lincs winners by 109-104 and in a semi-final tie on February 20 against either Norfolk or Northants.

Result (Lincs names only):

Senior Liberty Trophy: Lincs 109 Yorkshire 104. Home - A Romaine, D Want, P Edwards (all Stamford) won 24-17; B Wilson, R Flowers, P Flatters, L Feary (all Boston) lost 15-17; B Warters, M Cullingworth, T Scarr, Roger Martin ( all Stamford) lost 12-20. Away - J Mountain (Skegness), B Hodges (Spalding), K Jackman (Horncastle), B Hawes (Skegness) lost 16-19; G Wood, T Conroy, M Smith, G Draper (all Lincoln) won 26-17; B Reeson, R White (both Boston), J Whithers, M Thompson (both Lincoln) won 16-14.

Paul Bailey and his daughter Katie are through to the Area 5 semi-final of the EIBA Family pairs after a 22-16 defeat of former English singles winner Martin Spencer and his sister Chantelle.

Despite only days away from expecting her first child, Katie was outstanding at lead setting up a series of opportunities which the Spalding ace was unable to destroy.

PAIRS EXIT

It took an extra end to defeat Stamford's Glenys Edwards and Shirley Suffling in the Lincs IBA pairs against Scunthorpe.

On February 4, Stamford will be represented by two rinks in the women's triples - Louise Harris, Rita Downs and Helen Holroyd & June Brennan, Shirley Suffling and Christine Ford.

FOOTNOTE: Lincs Women's IBA has announced that it intends returning to sharing its finals day with the men in 2019.