Bowls By David Taylor

Published at 11:42, Thursday, 29 May 2008

THE Alsop and Middleton squads met on Tuesday evening at Wigton so that team managers Peter Irving and John Bell could put the final touches to the teams which will do duty for Cumbria on Saturday.

The Alsop side travels to Bolton for the game against Lancashire which commences at noon and the chosen side is shown below. Cumbria will be hoping for a good win baring in mind that Northumberland made a good start to their Alsop campaign when beating Yorkshire 18-4 at Hexham last Saturday.

Cumbria’s Middleton side is not at full strength as Stuart Bowman, Richard Chandler, Craig Docherty and Mark Irwin are not available for the first game against Yorkshire at Middlesbrough. But the chosen side which is shown below should still be good enough unless Yorkshire have made a remarkable improvement since last year.

Yorkshire skips for Saturday’s game are D Stroughair, P Emmerson, M Walton, P Stoker, C Kelly, V O’Neill.

Top Double Rink

Eight of Cumbria’s top players will also be in action at Kirbymoorside in Yorkshire on Sunday when they face Lincolnshire in the Top Double Rink.

Again Cumbria is unable to field a full strength side but there must be every chance that the selected eight will be good enough to improve on some disappointing results in recent seasons.

Stephen Farish and Stuart Airey will skip the two Cumbria fours. Farish has Paul Barlow at lead, Mark Nanson at second and Ben Sherwen as third while Airey will have either John Bell Junior or David Forster Junior at lead, Ian Airey at second and Ian Gallagher as third. This game commences at noon.

Carliol League

League leaders Dalston suffered a surprise 10-0 home defeat by Courtfield last Thursday a result which saw Subscription who beat Brampton by the same score race away into a nine point lead at the head of the table.

Stanwix scored a welcome 7-3 win at Edenside while the remaining fixture between British Rail and Holme Head was postponed. With a nine point lead already current champions Subscription already look hot favourites to retain their title.

Dalston and Courtfield are now joint second while British Rail are in fourth with Edenside in fifth.

In the Friday section West End went down 6-4 to Subscription but still retain top spot albeit by just two points from Subscription.

Courtfield moved into third after beating Linton 8-2 while Stanwix and Wetheral share fourth place with Edenside and Brampton sharing sixth place just one point behind.

Brampton had a good 8-2 victory over Stanwix while Wetheral beat Linton 8-2 in a rearranged fixture before going down 8-2 against Dalston. In the last of the fixtures Currock scored a good 6-4 win over Edenside.

Under-25 Singles

Sixteen of Cumbria’s up and coming youngsters will be taking part in the Junior Singles at Cockermouth Croft on Sunday commencing at 10am.

A good original entry of 23 including seven Middleton Cup players was received and whilst all the preliminary ties will not be completed until today there is sure to be a good quality line up on Sunday. Ryan Baird of Shap faces a tough task against Danny May while Ryan Prince will meet either Kevin Harrison or Stuart Wilkinson.

Appleby’s J Burgess faces Stuart Bowman while Luke Targett also has a hard first round game against Mark Irwin. The winner of the prelim between David Forster and John Bell meets Matthew Hodgson while Adam Hocking plays Scott Beattie and Workington’s A Newstead plays Wigton’s Ryan Baxter.

Play commences at 10am, continues at 11.30am with the second round and semi-final following on in the afternoon.

If you’ve got some spare time why not pop along to watch these boys, if last years play is anything to go by you will not be disappointed.

County Singles

The early rounds of the County Singles were completed last Saturday and as a result of the lowest ever entry the competition is already down to the last 32 players.

Results appeared to go largely to form though there were some upsets and one major surprise was the defeat of one of the county’s most consistent four bowls players in recent seasons Rick Gallagher. Rick found Appleby’s Bob Au too good on the day.

Trevor Taylor led in the early stages but went down to Stuart Bowman while Mark Irwin found David Stanton in good form and was beaten 21-17.

Ian Gallagher looked to be in trouble against David Cannon but came back to win but Stuart Bowman found the experienced John Phillipson too good for him in the second round.

Craig Docherty won his first two games and will now meet Alsop manager Peter Irving while Andrew Baxter has a third round tie against Longtown’s Nigel Harper.

Mark Nanson will now play club mate Michael Downie while Paul Bannister meets Seaton youngster John Barber. Stephen Walker plays Alan Walker and Geoff Steele will play John Hodkin.

Noel Christopher has a third round battle with Longtown’s Frank Wilson and Danny May will face Kirkbride’s David Beattie. Third round ties to be played on Tuesday June 3.

National Competitions

Aspatria Bowls Club is doing well at present and beat Silloth in the Top Club 3-2 and also accounted for Yorkshire club Marske 3-2 in the next round.

In the Champion of Champions Paul Bannister of Croft beat Noel Christopher 21-17, John Baird of Shap beat David Balfour 21-8 and Wigton’s Stephen Farish accounted for David McManus 21-19.

TEAMS

Middleton Cup Yorkshire v Cumbria at Middlesbrough Saturday May 31 at 2pm

D Forster, S Beattie, D May, S Airey; JA Bell, I Airey, T Taylor, JN Bell; D McManus, J Baird, G Taylor, I Gallagher; S Walker, S Green, S Irwin, B Sherwen; K Harrison, R Gibson, P Barlow, S Farish; N Karge, D Gregory, M Nanson, R Gallagher

Alsop Cup Lancashire v Cumbria at Bolton Saturday May 31 at noon

D Pattinson, D Blackmore, P Pattinson, A McGuiness; D Cannon, R Dent, R Dalziel, P Metcalfe; L Kelly, A Walker, R Litt, E Orchard; W Bateman, V Emmerson, M Jackman, R Ritchie, H Stewart, B Fieldhouse, R au, P Irving

Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk