Published at 11:45, Thursday, 07 August 2008

THE focus of the bowls world switches away from Cumbria as both the ladies and gents national championships, are taking place at Leamington and Worthing.

National competition: Sandra Parker, left, and Judy Armstrong

Around the local greens with David Taylor

The ladies commenced last week and whilst not doing too badly to date the locals have as yet to progress beyond the third round.

In the fours the results were disappointing with Edenside’ Judy Armstrong and Whitehaven’s Matty Ritson both suffering first round defeats by Kent and Wiltshire respectively.

In the triples both Edenside’s Liz Gourlay and Silloth’s Sandra Parker overcame the first obstacle when beating Dorset and Durham.

But both then went down narrowly in round two Edenside losing by two to Norfolk while Silloth went down by the minimum margin to Oxford a result which proved to be a great effort when Caroline Campion's trio went on to become national champions on Tuesday.

In the Two Wood Singles the performances continued to improve. Whitehaven’s Karen Westwood and Croft’s Elizabeth Ring both had comfortable first round victories over Isle of Wight and Northants and both followed up in round two when beating Surrey and Lincoln.

In the third round however both went out, Westwood losing 16-11 against Lancashire while Ring went down 18-5 to Suffolk.

In the Champion of Champions Courtfield’s Cindy Edmondson matched the performances of the triple scoring two comfortable wins before losing out 21-8 to Hampshire in the quarter final.

The Gents championships commence on Saturday and first in for Cumbria will be the Under-25s.

Cumbria has a strong hand here with Subscription’s Danny May who will be looking to add the outdoor title to the indoor title he won earlier this year and as a Junior international and a fair bit of experience on the Worthing greens he must be a leading contender.

Cumbria’s other representative is Silloth’s Lewis Parker who showed that his qualification last year was no fluke by repeating it this year. Lewis is still relatively inexperienced.

But he showed last year that the occasion was not too much for him and though he is in a hard section of a competition where there are ten Junior Internationals in all, I feel sure he will give a good display.

On Sunday Cumbria current national fours champions, Danny May Ian Airey, Richard Chandler and Stuart Airey return to the scene of last years triumph to defend their title.

Despite the misfortune of having been drawn in a preliminary round Airey’s four are not in a bad section of a competition where there appear to be no more than half a dozen really solid fours.

If they play to their best I expect them to make a bold show. Cumbria’s other four of Michael Downie, John Baird, Rick Gallagher and Ian Gallagher do not play until Monday and meet a fair Hertfordshire four skipped by Mark Yelland.

The Subscription four is a solid one however and provided that their exertions at the Bournemouth Open Tournament this week do not leave their mark I expect them to do well also.

The County Pairs final between Trevor Taylor and Craig Docherty of Wigton Park and John Baird and Rick Gallagher of Subscription was played at Edenside last week and it turned out to be a rather low-key affair with the miserable weather and few spectators hardly enhancing the atmosphere.

A tight affair saw Subscription holding a narrow lead as the final stages approached but the Wigton Park duo struck back to take the title with a 23-20 win.

The final of the Triples which sees another Wigton Park qualifier David Bedlington, Dean Haney and Andrew Baxter matched against Paul Barlow, John Bell and Stephen Farish of Wigton will as expected be played this Saturday and the start time is 10.00am at Wigton.

The Singles final which sees Danny May playing David Forster is to be played also at Wigton on Wednesday August 13th commencing 6.30pm.

In the County Mixed Pairs Barbara Hamill and John Hodkin defeated Sylvia Jefferies and Brian Warren and will now play Lewis and Sandra Parker in the final.

In the Restricted Singles Wigton Park’s Joe Coulthard will play Chris Allason of Brampton and in the Secretaries Singles Edenside’s Anthony Little will play Currock’s Colin Hartness. It is hoped that all these final will be played at Edenside on Champion of Champions second day depending on the qualifiers for the Champion of Champions itself.

Keswick Junior Singles

An excellent entry of eighteen took part in a round robin event on Monday. In glorious weather which enhances the geographical situation of the Fitz Park Club there was some great bowling from the youngsters.

In the semi-final Silloth’s Lewis Parker beat Shap’s Ryan Baird after an extra end while in the other game another good Silloth prospect Adam Hocking accounted for Seaton’s John Barber. In the final Hocking beat Parker 8-7.

Wigton and Whitehaven battled out the final of the County Cup at Silloth on Tuesday and victory went to Wigton by the surprisingly easy margin of fifteen shots. John Wills defeated Ben Sherwen by 12 and Stephen Farish finished three ahead of Alan McGuiness to keep the trophy at Wigton for another year.

An 8-2 home win for Subscription against Edenside and an 8-2 win at Brampton has virtually sealed another league title for the Myddleton Street Club as they now have a 13-point advantage over nearest pursuers Brampton.

Courtfield remain in third place despite losing narrowly at Wets End 6-4 Brampton won their scheduled fixture against Holme Head 8-2 while Dalston won their home game against Stanwix 6-4.

In a rearranged fixture British Rail defeated Holme Head 6-4.

In the Friday league there are three games left to play but Dalston despite only managing to beat Linton 6-4 look to have taken a winning advantage as they now lead nearest challengers West End, who could also only manage a 6-4 home victory over Stanwix, no less than 14 points.

Edenside showed some improvement in form when beating Brampton 6-4 and Courtfield got back to winning ways when scoring an 8-2 home win over Wetheral.

In the remaining fixture Subscription beat Currock 9-1 at Scalegate Road.

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