Barnard Castle Bowls Club
Monday Evening League
ON a glorious evening with a near record crowd, it was show time to see who picked up the trophies.
The main event took place on rinks three and four where the top and second teams were in action, while the rest of the teams were playing for pride.
The Likely Lads were without their talisman Dennis Richards, who’s gone down with a mild form of Beri Beri, but were still in with a sniff of a trophy.
However, Peter Shovlin and Kevin Mannion were up against Neil Watters and Stephen Wall, from Wix, Wall and Watters, who pulled out all the stops – first by turning up two weeks in a row and secondly by tying down the opposition and winning 10-7.
Team Kryptonite stuck with John Walker and Tony Barkshire for the whole game as John Tallentire was fiddling about with bits of paper.
Their opponents, the Boys in Blue, also started and finished with Peter Rimmington and George Armstrong and in a game that swung more than a Redcar Shuggy boat.
It took the Boys the joker on the last end to snatch victory from TK 9-8.
Mary Lambert called on the bowling prowess of Mary Maine for the Pink Panthers game against Trionova’s Margaret Sparrow and ‘Mighty’ Mick Coverdale, who had been snapped up as a reserve following his success the previous weekend.
The scorecard was a bit of a mystery as it had a point for each team on the ninth end, however the final score of 10-8 to Trionova had been entered on the score sheet and it didn’t affect the placings.
The game between Bob Lockyer and Brian Smurthwaite representing the Young Ones and GeeJays Gillian Harle and Dave Smith was a real tight affair.
The teams were locked at seven apiece with two to play and despite winning the next end, the GJs still lost out as Bob and Brian used the joker to good effect on the last end to take the game 9-8.
Meanwhile on rink four Bold Eagles John Robinson and Tony Hudspeth seemed to be doing enough by the halfway stage to maintain their four point cushion at the top of the league, sitting 5-3 up against Kevin Cross and Phil Harrison from the Odd Bowls.
Over on rink three, the Men in Black, represented by Angus Dowson and Neil Bailey, were 3-5 down at the same stage against Redbreasts Rene Armstrong and Ursula Munnerly and looking like they would have to be content with runner-up spot. Talk about games of two halves.
The Boldies were still looking good at 7-6 up with three to play while the Men in Black had crept into a 8-5 lead with the same number of ends left.
With the lead cut back to three, the Boldies only had to hold their nerve but it wasn’t to be as they never scored another point losing out to the Oddies 10-7.
As if this wasn’t bad enough the MiB hit a purple patch and including the joker took their score to 12-5 securing the top spot with 110 points while the Bold Eagles came a commendable second with 109 points.
At the other end of the table the Redbreasts turned up on desolation row to collect the wooden spatulas with 68 points.
Well, that’s it for 2021, who knows we could be back next year.
Men’s Vets
For the final game of the season, it was a double header with the A team away at Darlington Woodland BC and the B team entertaining their B team.
The A team had an impressive 4-0 win taking the long game 64-44 with the help of the Top Rink consisting of Neil Bailey, Peter Rimmington and Kevin Cross, who won 25-13.
The B team enjoyed a comfortable 3-1 win taking two rinks and the long game 65-37. Top rink consisted of John Robinson, Bob Lockyer and Michael Coverdale who won 29-10.
Pleas Pairs
The players were randomly drawn into pairs, playing five games with a maximum ten points available.
The draw came up with some fairly even teams which was reflected in the scoring with the winners on seven points and the runners up on six. In first place were Sheila Hillaby and John Robinson, three teams scored six points but after working out shots difference, Peter Shovlin and John Tallentire took second place.
JT
Ladies bowls
At the end of a limited league season, the ladies were disappointed to lose by a narrow margin in the final of the Evening League knock-out competition.
However, in the Afternoon League finals, Gillian Harle won through to become champion of champions.
JP
