Bowls Northumberland

Federation Cup

The Junior International fixture between a select side from the Northern Counties and Scotland will take place at Sight Hill BC, Edinburgh on Sunday 18th September.

The team to represent Northern England is as follows: Dan Bennett (Northumberland), Rachel Cartwright (Northumberland), Adam Hocking (Cumbria) & David Forster (Cumbria); Dan Sherman (Northumberland), Christian Lowes (Northumberland), Joe Ballantyne (Durham), Josh Minto (Northumberland); Rachel Forster (Cumbria), Joe Dadd (Yorkshire), Jack Lockhart (Lancashire), James Park (Cumbria); Dan Catterall (Lancashire), Liam Creaser (Yorkshire), Jack Miller (Northumberland), Dominic McVittie (Lancashire); Josie Hodgson (Durham), Jordan Hartson (Durham), Mark Hodgson (Durham) & Barry Hopkins (Durham); Richard Curtis (Northumberland), Chris Knowles (Yorkshire), Lewis Rimmer (Lancashire) & John Yates (Lancashire).

Tom Butler Cup

Northumberland juniors Richard Curtis, Rachel Cartwright & Jack Miller (assisted by Lancashire Junior Daniel Muldoon) lifted the Tom Butler Cup at the recent Northern Counties Championships. With each of the four counties participating equal on points going into the final fixture, Northumberland headed the table with an advantage of 12 shots over their nearest rival thanks to a 14 shot victory over Yorkshire. In their final match an 8 shot victory over Durham meant that realistically only Lancashire could catch them, to do so they needed to defeat Yorkshire by a massive 21 shots. Despite their efforts they could only match Northumberland's 8 shot victory which meant Northumberland came away with the trophy.

Northumberland bt Yorkshire 18-4; lost to Lancashire 7-9; bt Durham 16-8

Northern Counties Championships

This years championships were held at Heaton Park, Manchester on Sat 10th & Sun 11th Sept and our only triumph came in the Fours with Gosforth's quartet of Steve Pallas, Philip Paxton, Craig Cooper & Simon Richardson defeating Durham's Gary Farquar by a single shot in the final (18-17), after a 23-9 win over Cumbria's David Forster in the semi-final.

Mick McGreevy lost in the Singles final to David Bolt 21-19, having defeated David Forster (Cumbria) 21-13 in the semi-final. Unfortunately Josh Minto was unavailable for the Under 25's singles because of Junior International duty. Chris Yeomans and Philip Paxton (sub for Josh) lost 15-14 in the prelim of the Pairs to Yorkshire's Paul Humphreys, whilst in the Triples Jack Miller, Michael Bennett & Chris Lewars lost to Yorkshire's Ngiel Brignal 17-14.

Ladies National Championships

Burradon's Pat Browne, Rachel Cartwright & Kayleigh Proctor were Northumberland's star performers in these championships with their superb efforts in reaching the Triples semi-finals and Rachel's quarter-final placing in the Under 25 Singles.

The Burradon trio were agonisingly pipped by Surrey's Margaret Smith with the game being decided by an extra-end. Their run to the semi-finals included some impresive victories on route, non more so than wins over International's Amy Gowshill (Lincs) and Ellen Falkner (Cambridgeshire) in the fourth and fifth rounds respectively. Earlier in the championships Rachel had battled through to the quarter-final of the Under 25 Singles before losing to the eventual winner Sophi Tolchard (Devon) 21-19.

TM Report

The Men's Championships start this weekend and i would like to offer my good wishes to all the Northumberland players who have qualified in the various events.

The Final stages of the Balcomb Trophy will also be held during these championships andlet's hope that the team representing Northumberland can do the County proud and bring the Trophy home 4-years since it was first won.

The team to represent Northumberland is as follows:

Chris Lewars, Richard Train, Craig Cooper & Chris Yeomans; Josh Minto, Philip Paxton, Simon Richardson & Chris Palmer. Reserves: Steve Pallas & Darren Parkes

the very best of luck to you all

Stan Lant (Team Manager)