Friday evening brought the last 16 of the Men’s county championships.
There were impressive and comprehensive away wins; firstly for former champions Gosforth’s Chris Yeomans, defeating Benfield Jonty King 17 – 4 (entry under Alan Pomfrey), and Ashington’s George Richardson. Richardson’s triple of Paul Freeman, Christian Lowes and George Richardson continued their impressive wins, this time winning 22 – 2 at Seghill over home favourite Ian Nolan.
Other former champions, and another away win played last night (due to Sam Fender!) – as Gosforth’s Chris Palmer beat St. Georges Dragons Neil Aitchison 26 – 9 at the Morpeth club, although this doesn’t tell the full story as the home team led Palmer 9 – 5 after 7 ends. But a scoring sequence of 4, 4, 3 and 2 took the game away and Palmer’s triple wrapped up victory after 14 ends.
Palmer will have home advantage next week and will face the 2013 champions and ex club mates (now St. George’s Dragons) in Michael Cymber, Stephen Harvey and Phil Harvey – as they received a walk over from Hexham Elvaston’s Keith Sanders. Another walk-over was for Gosforth’s Dane Ross, Ross will have home advantage in the 1/4 final where they will take on Ashington’s George Richardson.
However, there was better news for another Benfield triple tonight, with the triple skipped by Jonny Morgan beating Haltwhistle’s Martin Rogan 19 – 11. Morgan will take on Gosforth’s Yeomans, and Morgan will have home advantage again.
The last two results in tonight saw two home wins – firstly Gosforth & Coxlodege Jimmy Anderson (skipped by Bob Taylor), edged out neighbours and Gosforth’s Michael Bennett (skipped by Mal Cooper), and saw the home team recover from 14 – 11 down at 15 ends, to win the last 3 ends, scoring a 2, 3 and another 2 to take the tie 18 – 14. Next week Anderson will have home advantage over Morpeth’s Wally Ray. As tonight Wally Ray recorded a good home win over Benfield Matty Bishop 24 – 9, with most of the work done in the first few ends, where Ray scored a 6 and 5 in the the first 6 ends, to open up a 10 shot gap, which ultimately was maintained through the game, and Ray scoring a 4 on end 16 to take the tie 24 – 9.
Next week (Friday) is the quarter finals – with 2 of the 4 ties being played at Gosforth BC.
To view the results and draw – CLICK HERE.