BOWLS By David Taylor

Last updated 11:48, Thursday, 04 September 2008

ONE of the last of the outdoor competitions starts on Saturday when 21 club champions will play for the Joe Hodgson Memorial Trophy.

Just champion: Former Joe Hodgson Memorial Trophy winners Stephen Farish and Ken Johnstone

The entry is probably one of the lowest since the competition began over 40 years ago but in view of the awful weather conditions in the last two months it is quite possible that some clubs have been unable to finish their championships.

Eleven of the qualifiers start play at Appleby at noon while the other 12 make the trip to Workington for their early games.

Mark Nanson and Stephen Farish are the only two Middleton players at Appleby while Mark Irwin is the only Middleton player involved at Workington.

Stephen Farish will be looking for a second success in the competition as will Ken Johnston of Stanwix who took the title back min 1989

Two winners from each green on Saturday will play off at Edenside – the semi-finals start at noon on Sunday.

Also taking place at Sunday will be the finals of the Mixed Pairs which sees Lewis Parker and Sandra Parker of Silloth playing Barbara Hamill and John Hodkin of Workington. This final starts at 11.30am

The Restricted Singles final starts at 3pm and Wigton Park’s Joe Coulthard will play Chris Allason of Brampton. The final of the Secretary’s Singles sees Edenside’s Anthony Little facing Colin Hartness of Currock and the start time for this final has been changed to noon.

The Championships turned out to be rather disappointing for Cumbria with not a single title coming back to what is undoubtedly the strongest of the five northern counties.

To be fair Cumbria contested only four of the six championships and in the pairs there is still a chance that the trophy will come back to Cumbria.

John Baird and Rick Gallagher led 10-4 in the final before, not unusually, the rain intervened, flooding the green and play had to be abandoned.

It now seems likely that the final will be completed before the first Middleton Cup match of next season in May next year.

Rick Gallagher went down narrowly in the Two Wood Singles final while Lewis Parker went down 21-13 in the Junior Singles.

Craig Docherty, who has just joined the ranks of married men, got some further good news when he was selected to represent England in a test Series against Wales on Wednesday and Thursday, September 17 and 18, at Westlecot Bowls Club in Swindon.

The Test Series will give Commonwealth Games co-ordinator John Bell the opportunity to have a look at the eight selected players prior to the selection of the Commonwealth games squad.

Wigton Park has had a good year and rounded it off by winning the league in the last match of the season on Friday.

It was a close run affair, however, when they met Wigton in a real local derby.

Indeed, in failing light, Wigton looked as though they might well take the title when laying a match winning five on the last end of the last rink on the green.

But in the gathering gloom, Stephen Farish rescued the situation to give the Park the title. The game created quite a bit of interest and it was good to see some enthusiasm from players and spectators.

Some of Cumbria’s up and coming Juniors travelled to Seaham on Saturday for the Northern Counties Under-21 Top Nine.

After a promising start, however, when they drew 3-3 against Durham, things did not go too well and a 6-0 defeat at the hands of eventual winners Yorkshire meant that all chance of success was lost.

In the final game it was another disappointing 5-1 defeat at the hands of Northumberland though it was not all gloom as Kevin Harrison, Stephanie Moffatt and Jonathon Fieldhouse all acquitted themselves well.

There has been a rumour circulating that British Rail will not operate next season but news from the club is that the rumour is not true.

What is true is that like a number of other clubs in the city they are struggling for members and therefore having difficulty in fielding full sides.

This situation may well result in a format change for the Thursday section of the Carliol League next year though such a change can only be made by the League’s Annual General Meeting later this year.