Southam sunk as Spa progress in National Top Club

Royal Leamington Spa's men began a busy weekend with a second round National Top Club win at Southam on Saturday morning.
Dick Williams produced a stunning run to beat Southams Ken Tredgold in the two-wood singles as Royal Leamington Spa progressed in the National Top Club.Dick Williams produced a stunning run to beat Southams Ken Tredgold in the two-wood singles as Royal Leamington Spa progressed in the National Top Club.
Dick Williams produced a stunning run to beat Southams Ken Tredgold in the two-wood singles as Royal Leamington Spa progressed in the National Top Club.

In the two-wood singles, Ken Tredgold got Southam off to a good start, winning the first four ends.

However, Dick Williams responded by taking ten of the next 11 ends to build a commanding lead and eventually take the match by 17 shots to 13.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

With Graham and Ray White easing into a big lead in the pairs and Bill Claridge doing likewise in the four-wood singles, Spa eventually secured an unassailable 3-0 match lead with 36-6 and 21-3 wins, respectively.

With rain starting, the match was conceded by Southam with Spa’s Dave Gardner 14-12 ahead in the fours and Dick Allibon trailing 22-12 in the triples.

The 4-1 overall win sets Spa up with a trip to Welford in the next round.

The afternoon saw Spa’s men travel further afield to play at Daventry Town in a five-rink triples friendly encounter.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Three rink wins helped Spa secure another victory, with White continuing where he left off a few hours earlier, this time skipping Barry Dale and Dave Turner to a 24-11 win to be the visitors’top rink.

There were also wins for Malcolm Wickens (18-7) and Dick Allibon (23-14).

Jim Tighe (23-11) and Trevor Briggs (26-11) were beaten on the other two rinks, but overall victory went to Spa by 87 shots to 81.

On Sunday, Spa made the long journey to Llandrindod Wells in mid-Wales for their annual mixed eight-rink fixture against the hosts of the Welsh National Championships.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

With several senior and junior internationals in their team, as well as past ladies’ singles world champion Betty Morgan, the hosts fielded a side that was too strong for Spa to hold, especially in the heavy rain that fell throughout the match.

Nevertheless, although Spa went down 150-104 overall, Dick Allibon skipped Tony Allibone, Susan Roe and David Payne to an excellent 28-11 win and there were also victories for Ray White (16-13) and Malcolm Wickens (15-13).

Spa ladies could not emulate their male counterparts in their County Top Club match last week against Welford.

Having already narrowly beaten Welford this season in the National Top Club competition, hopes were high for a repeat performance.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

However, it was not to be, despite another excellent showing by Spa’s Dawn Horne and Janice White in the pairs (28-12) and a narrow 14-13 win by Sue Deavall, Jenny Wickens and Donna Kerr in the triples.

Overall, the match ended 2-2 as Bonny Claridge was beaten 21-12 in the singles and Cynthia Briggs lost 26-13 in the fours, despite a great last-end attempt to secure the extra shots that would have just given Spa the match.

Spa ladies’ three-triples friendly match at home to Avon last week ended in a 49-42 win.

With little between the two teams, Spa just edged it courtesy of wins from Cherry Plant (17-13) and Sheena Harris (16-12).