The Men’s 2 Wood Singles continued with round 3 taking place, and there no fewer than 4 former and multiple county champions in action. There were 4 ties settled by one shot only, and two of these required an extra end.
Top of the draw saw action at Wooler BC, where former double champion and home favourite Brian Davidson overcome St. Georges Dragons Ash Endacott 16 – 9. Brian will have home advantage again next week and will face Gosforth’s former double champion in Simon Richardson, where Simon won at Rockcliffe tonight.
The two other multiple former champions see them clash next week – Gosforth’s Brian Houghton received a walk-over tonight due to club colleague Peter Duffy receiving notification end of last week on his forthcoming knee surgery. Brian will be at home next week and take on Amble’s Alex Bryden. As tonight Alex beat Cowpen & Crofton’s Simon Robinson 16 – 10. Alex is a new member to Amble BC, joining last year, but Alex has won the Bowls Durham 2 Bowl Singles twice, and also won the Northern Counties 2 bowl title as well.
It seemed to be a good evening for Gosforth tonight – as you will see they have 8 of the last 16 in the draw. Stand out performances perhaps – were at Ashington BC. Where home favourite George Richardson lost to Goforth’s Dave Lane 15 – 14 on an extra end (played this afternoon), and tonight Lane’s clubmate Tuan Le beat Paul Freeman 16 – 15. Tuan will be back at Ashington next week, where Tuan will face Ashington’s Steve Wood, who beat George Bennett at Gosforth 15 – 11. Another notable result was an impressive away win for Forth’s Wayne Penton, Wayne continued his good form. Wayne beat the reigning 4 bowl singles champion Josh Minto at home last week, and tonight Wayne travelled to St. Georges and beat Tom Symons 13 – 12 on an extra end. Wayne will be at home next week, where he faces Gosforth’s James Henderson. Henderson possibly gained revenge tonight, as James beat 2024 runner up Jonty King 16 – 7 at Benfield; as in the semi-final last year Jonty beat James on an extra end. It was not a good evening for the Benfield club, as 3 of their 4 representatives suffered loses unfortunately – with the other two loses being down at Rockcliffe Rollers, firstly Shaun Lee Brown beating Mark Dickinson 15 – 6 this afternoon; and Rockcliffe’s Dave Morton beat Benfield’s Alan Pomfrey 16 – 14, where Alan had an awful start, being 10 nil down after 6 ends. Alan recovered and scored on 8 of the next 9 ends to lead 13 – 11 after end 16. But Dave hit back to score singles on end 17, 18 and end 20 – which meant the game was level at 14 all playing the last end, and the Roller was not to be denied as Dave scored a double to take the tie 16 – 14.
The last few games to report on were Gosforth’s Nick Houghton beating St. Georges Alan Stewart 13 – 10, Morpeth’s Nick Armstrong winning at Gosforth, beating James McKenna, Gosforth’s BJ Byles winning by 1 at Cowpen & Crofton, Benfield’s Steve Welsh winning at Gosforth also – beating former runner Paul Timney, and the last game was played yesterday, and saw Gosforth’s Steve Miller win at Gosforth & Coxlodge.
Well done to all concerned tonight – and thanks for reporting in results promptly – all in by 8:40 (thank you).