Royal Leamington Spa quartet win club's first County fours title

Bowls round-up

Royal Leamington Spa Bowls

In a closely fought match away at Lillington last weekend, Royal Leamington Spa’s men took victory by just 2 shots, despite winning only two of the five rinks. The quartet of Dick Allibon, Derek Bolam, Neil Weston and Dave Gardner led the way for Spa, taking a 24-10 win against Nigel Roach. Spa’s only other success came from Captain Bill Claridge, Stephen Cowley, Jerry Horne and Greville Reader. Well ahead at one point, Lillington Captain Malcolm Welch fought back in the latter stages to restrict Reader’s margin of victory to just 7 shots, 27-20. With Lillington’s John Henfrey defeating Dave Turner 24-12, there was little to separate the sides on the other two rinks but thanks to Spa’s Dave Wigman only just losing out to Martin Preedy (17-19) and Mervyn Taylor restricting Lillington’s Keith Francis to a 15-12 win, Spa just took the match by 92 shots to 90.

At the Warwickshire Ladies County Finals played at Stratford last weekend, Royal Leamington Spa’s Dawn Horne, Anita Cowdrill, Jenny Wickens and Janice White were crowned “fours” champions, the first time that a rink from the club has won this particular competition. Playing a team skipped by Lisa Smith from Welford, the Spa quartet were slow to start but a haul of 7 shots on the fifth end saw them leap into an 8-5 lead, from which they never looked back, eventually taking the title with an 18-10 win.

In the final of the Unbadged Singles competition, Spa’s Sandra Payne faced Jacqui Ashley from Warwick Boat Club and was always chasing the game as her opponent opened up a commanding early lead. Despite a brief recovery by Payne, Ashley was not to be caught and eventually ran out the champion as she took the match 21-8.

Two of Warwickshire’s strongest ladies’ clubs faced each other in the final of the “Top Club” competition as Royal Leamington Spa took on Welford. As expected, it was a very tight tussle. First blood went to Spa when Anita Cowdrill took a 21-15 win the 4-wood singles game. Next to finish was the triples match, where honours went to Welford by a margin of 16 shots to 9, followed quickly by the fours game, which was a second win for Welford, 17-9. Last to finish was the pairs game. With Spa ahead 21-15 going into the last end, and the match heading for a 2-2 tie, Dawn Horne and Janice White needed 3 shots to take the match into extra ends but instead it was Welford who picked up the 3 shots to leave Spa with a 21-18 win, but missing out on the overall title 60-66 on shots.

Southam Ladies win Benevolent Cup

The Southam team of Heather Tredgold, Sheila Lyne, Carol Bradley beat a team from Nuneaton 19-12 to win the Benevolent Cup in the final held in Stratford (Pictured).

A mixed team was not so lucky in their KDL match at home to FISSC losing 32-58.

The only winning rink was skipped by Denis Ward with Heather Tredgold, David Adnitt, Velisa Brown who were 2-4 down at 5 ends but then took control to win

14-10.

Bob Jardine (skip) Tony Hoffman, Barbara Godfrey, Jamie Langston were never in their game losing 9-20

Ted Coupe (skip) Aubrey Brown, Peter Godfrey, Ken Tredgold again were in catch up losing 9-28.

Leamington Home Guard Club

Home Guard travelled to Banbury Central on Tuesday in a 4 rink triples return fixture which finished with a score line of 53-58 in Banbury’s favour. The Guard achieved two winning rinks, the highest going to Martin Bayley supported by Jaimie Wade and Colin Chamberlain but they trailed 5-7 to Dave Davies’s trio after 9 ends, however an improved second 9 gave the Guard a close 13-11 victory. Pete Larkin with Alan Rawlinson and Clive Antrobus were also 4 shots down at 9 ends, but a strong second half resulted in 17-16 victory. Les Woodfield’s rink consisted of Mike Davies and Pete Warren who after being five shots down never recovered to finish 11-14 down. Brian Smith with Roy Scott and John McDermott were on the losing end all through and went down 12-17.

Lillington

26/07 Ladies Friendly home to Avon 3 x triples LBC won 48-29

Hazel Goodman, June Sibbick and skip Pat Gagg eased into a 10-4 lead at 8 ends against a J Toner trio and reinforced their control in the second period for a comfortable 21-5 victory

Pippa Mace, Jayne Henfrey and skip Chris Ward held a healthy 9-4 lead at 9 ends but a strong response from the visitors skipped by J Grant helped them to a 15-12 win

Brenda Lee, Margaret Stephens and skip Val Joyce led a M Rees trio 8-5 at 8 ends and held their form to run out 15-9 winners.

Avenue Leamington

Avenue Leamington Bowls Club sealed a brilliant victory in the Quarter Final of the Wardrop Cup over Rugby Bowls Club on Wednesday night. Avenue got off to the perfect start with Dean Whyte winning the 2-Wood Singles in sensational style to put Avenue 1-0 ahead in the match. After run of winning 9 consecutive ends, Whyte won his game 15-4 against Rugby's Tom Wheeler. Daniel Ellicott faced Rugby's Jordan Ward in the 4-Wood Singles. Ellicott took a 12-7 lead before Ward levelled the game. Ward then scored big on 2 ends to put himself ahead and see out the game. Ward clinched the game 21-14 over Ellicott and made it 1-1. In the Pairs, Phil Wadland and Mike Kelly took on Rugby's Lee Maughan and Craig Carter. With Wadland leading up well for Kelly, Carter was left firing most ends. Kelly added some great bowls himself and the pair won 20-9 to give Avenue a 2-1 lead. The Triples saw Mark Smith, Gary Newton and Andy Sparkes take on Rugby's Jacob Mills, Keith Mason and Darren Ward. Sparkes' triple picked up 7 shots in 3 ends to take a 10-8 lead before Ward's triple did the same to go 15-10 ahead. The Rugby triple went on to win the game 21-17 and levelled the Quarter Final at 2-2. It all went down to the Fours as Avenue's Karl Finch, John Hughes, Luke Horne and Adam Smith faced Rugby's Ewan Mason, William Higham, Nigel Carter and Adrian Johnston. A six in the early stages saw Johnston's rink make a great start and they led Smith's rink 13-5 at 6 ends. However, Smith's rink made a fantastic comeback and took the next 8 ends to win their game 19-13. The result from the Fours meant Avenue won a captivating Wardrop Cup contest 3-2. They will now face Nuneaton BC on 15th August in the Semi Final at Rugby BC.