Derby bragging rights for Royal Leamington Spa men

Despite easing into leads on three of the five rinks, the overall position was close for a long time, with Spa just holding the advantage by a single shot at the half-way point.

However, a stronger second-half performance by Spa, in which they outscored Lillington by almost two shots to one, saw them eventually take the match by a comfortable margin of 27 shots.

In the battle of the two captaining Malcolms, honours went to Spa with Malcolm Wickens leading Bill Claridge, Ron Deavall and Trevor Briggs to a 30-14 win over Lillington counterpart Malcolm Welch, who featured 14-year-old debutant Oliver French on his rink.

Elsewhere, Jim Tighe beat Keith Francis 20-10, Dick Allibon overcame Nigel Roach 21-17 and Dave Gardner edged past Martin Preedy 20-18.

There was some consolation for Lillington, though, as Ted Rheams beat Mike Wallace 19-14 to stave off the whitewash.

In another derby, Spa hosted Home Guard in a midweek six-rink triples game.

Played over two legs for the Gordon Abbott Trophy, it was a very close affair with both sides taking wins on three rinks.

Home Guard’s Fred Sawyer beat Mike Wilkes 19-14, while clubmate Mike Harrison gained a 19-15 win over Dick Allibon and Dennis Crossfield overcame Roger Mann 15-10.

With only narrow wins in response for Mike Wallace over John Henfrey (15-13) and Malcolm Wickens over Les Woodfield (21-20), the match was decided by the Spa trio of David Payne, Dave Wigman and Jerry Horne, whose resounding 26-11 win over Dave Ballard gave their side a four-shot advantage to take into the second leg.

There were mixed fortunes for Spa’s ladies, who were in action twice last week.

Entertaining Rugby in a three-rink triples match, club captain Jenny Wickens led from the front as she skipped Jean Leyland and Enid Reece to a convincing 24-7 win.

It was much tighter on the other two rinks, with a narrow 16-14 win for Elizabeth Glynne-Jones ensuring a comfortable 52-36 victory despite a 15-12 reverse for Binki Herbert.

Two days later, Spa went down 59-45 to Warwick Boat Club.

Wickens was again in form for Spa, skipping Dawn Horne and Sheena Harris to a 21-14 win over Vivienne Griffin.

However, the other two triples could not match this performance as Mary Wheildon defeated Spa’s Wyn Jackson 19-12 and the Boat Club trio of Pamela Parker, Diane Harvey and Sandra Dean eased to a 26-12 win over Binki Herbert.

Avenue continued their winning run with a 98-79 mixed triples success at Kineton BC.

In a new fixture for the club, the highest winning rink of skip Phil Wadland, Graham Parker and Fran Parker were locked together at 4-4 after six ends before pulling away to win 23-10.

Tony Farmer (skip), Keith Orme and Barry Connolly were 9-3 down at six ends but then picked up nine shots on ends seven and eight on their way to a 25-16 win.

Ron Walton, Steve Franklin and Vera Booth also staged a stunning recovery, fighting back from 19-11 down with three ends to play to win 25-19 thanks to scores of five, six and three.

Mick Preedy and John Harris suffered 17-10 and 17-15 defeats, respectively.

Home Guard claimed a convincing 93-45 win in their home four-rink triples match against Welford.

They had a clean sweep of winning rinks, the highest of which saw John Henfrey skip a 17-shot victory.

Henfrey was supported by Pete Shone and Neil Duxbury.

The other winning rinks were skipped by Mike Harrison (16 shots), Fred Sawyer (11 shots) and captain Les Woodfield (four shots).