This afternoon the Men’s 2 bowl and 4 bowl singles finals were played at Alnwick BC, as part of the Bowls Northumberland unified county finals.
In the 4 bowl singles final it saw Gosforth’s Simon Richardson take on St. Georges Dragon Chris McGready. The game was tight early on as both players adjusting to the rink, with only 4 singles scored in the first 4 ends, with Richardson leading 3 – 1. McGready scored on 5 of the 6 ends to take a 10 – 5 lead. But for McGready, Richardson hit back to score on the next 5 ends to lead himself 15 – 10; Richardson dropped a 2 and then scored a treble to lead 18 – 12. The pattern continued with McGready fighting back, scoring on 4 of the next 5 ends to only trail 19 – 18, with the title in the balance. However, Richardson secured a double to clinch the game, the championship and his first singles title. Despite the defeat, Chris goes to the national finals as well as Simon, and Chris has the fours final to look forward to tomorrow, where he will face club mates in Phil Harvey’s quartet. Good luck to all.
Singles Champion Simon Richardson (Gosforth BC)
2 Wood Singles Final
At the same time (as the 4 wood singles final) the 2 wood singles final was being played, which saw former champion St. Georges Dragon Karl Jameson, take on Astley Park’s Graham Sivell.
The opening exchanges were relatively tight with Jameson holding a slight advantage, 5 – 4 at 7 ends, 7 – 6 at 9 ends. But from this point Sivell scored 1, 2 and another 2 to lead 11 – 7. Jameson hit back with two singles on the next 2 ends to only trail 11 – 9 (after 14 ends). Sivell scored a double to extend his lead again to 13 – 9; Jameson scored a single but Sivell scored two more singles on the 17th and 18th ends to lead 15 – 10. Jameson scored a single on the 19th end, meaning Karl required 2 doubles to take the tie in to an extra end, Karl lay 2 shots, but Graham drew second shot with his last bowl and took the game, title by 15 shots to 12. This is a great achievement for Graham, his first county title, and also second county title in Astley Park’s history, the last and first one was back in 1990, where in fact Karl won the triples, with Joe Ellison and Joe Chapman. Again like the 4 bowl singles both Graham and Karl will be representing Bowls Northumberland at the Bowls England National Finals next month at Royal Leamington Spa. We of course wish Graham and Karl well, like all of our players representing Bowls Northumberland.
2 Wood Singles Champion – Graham Sivell (Astley Park)
Mixed Pairs Final
Earlier in the day the Mixed Pairs Final was played at Alnwick BC – and saw a battle of champions, current holder in Health & Security’s Christine Gardner playing with Dave Thomas (as Rory Adamson is out injured at the minute) took on Wooler’s and former champion Brian Davidson, this year playing with a new partner Jacqui Donnelly.
It was a good day for the Wooler duo as they triumphed 29 – 3 and the game was conceded after 13 ends. Well done and congratulations to all concerned.
Mixed Pairs Champions – Jacqui Donnelly & Brian Davidson (Wooler BC)
L:R BNMS President Michael London, Wooler’s Brian Davidson & Jacqui Donnelly, BNWS President Norma Povey
As mentioned earlier the county finals continue tomorrow at Alnwick BC – with a 10am start.
10am – Women’s Senior 4’s S Storey (G) v P Browne (BD
10am – Men’s Triples – P Harvey (ST) v W Ray (M)
1:30pm – Women’s 4 Bowl Singles – N Scott (ND) v V Symons (WR)
1:30pm – Men’s 4’s – P Harvey (ST) v N Aitchison (ST)
Your support would be very much appreciated by all.
Please note you may want to give yourself a few minutes more in travel time – as between Morpeth and Alnwick there could be congestion – especially with Burgham Horse Trials being on.
Good luck to everyone tomorrow. AND a final mention a BIG thank you to Alnwick BC today in hosting the finals.