Friday evening saw the Men’s Quarter Finals take place.
Two of the quarter finals were at Gosforth BC, with multiple triples champion in home favourite Chris Yeomans, took on Westerhope’s young gun in Luke Heard. In the opening part of the game Yeomans held a slender lead, with Heard playing a number of conversion shots, along with draw shots to only trail Yeomans 7 – 6 at 9 ends. However, Yeomans triple, with Dan Targar leading and Josh Minto at two, scored on the next 4 ends to extend the lead to 13 – 6 after 13 ends; which ultimately proved decisive and Yeomans wrapped up the victory, scoring a treble on end 17 to take the game 20 – 8. On the next rink at Gosforth, saw Jimmy Curtis take on Benfield’s Brian Rootham. Like the Yeomans game, the opening exchanges were tight and this reflected in the scoreline being 5 – 4 to Rootham after 6 ends. Curtis scored a 4 on the next end, Rootham hit back scoring a double, which meant the score being 8 – 7 in favour of Jimbo Curtis. The next end was possibly the turning point, with the home team scoring a count of 7, to lead 15 – 7, Curtis scored a 1 on the next end, then a 3 on the end after following a Curtis ‘dink’! , to stretch the lead out to 19 – 7. Rootham continued to fight and scored a 2, and another one the following end to trail 20 – 10. On end 16, with the score 21 – 10, Rootham faced a match lie against with his last bowl, Rootham attacked the head and trailed the jack, to the side of the rink and collected a good count of 3, so with 2 ends to go Rootham still trailed 21 – 13. The 17th end played out, and the Gosforth team built up a good head, and despite the Benfield trio’s best efforts the head was not be overturned, and Gosforth scored a 3, taking the game 24 – 13.
Another Gosforth triple were in action, and again were down at the Sluice – as Seaton Sluice’s Paul Erskine, who beat another Gosforth triple (D Slasor) in the last round by 1, this time took on the county singles winner in Simon Richardson. Richardson started well, scoring on the first 3 ends to lead 8 – 0, and on the next end lay 5 shots, but Erskine managed to get the shot and put the home side on the board. Erskine then scored on the next 4 ends to reduce the deficit to 1, trailing 8 – 7. Richardson then scored 7 shots on 3 of the next 4 ends, to lead 15 – 8 – after 12 ends. Erkine hit back scoring 1, and then a 3 to only trail 15 – 12. Richardson scored on end 15 to lead 16 – 12, but Erksine hitback yet again, scoring a 1, then a 3 to tie the game with only 1 end to go. And just like last week, Erskine scored on this decisive and final end to win the game 18 – 16.
In the final tie, last and certainly no means least – so Portland’s young Grenville Richardson have home advantage over Cramlington’s Tony Fantozzi. Fantozzi had a good start, scoring on the the first 3 ends to lead 5 – 0, but the Portland trio scored on the next 4 ends to take the lead 7 – 5. The game remained tight, with the score being 8 all at 11 ends. Cramlington then scored 5 shots over the next 3 ends to lead 13 – 8, again the Portland triple recovered to only trail 13 – 12 with only 2 ends to play. But on end 17, and clearly a decisive score of 3 shots meant the Fantozzi trio taking a four shot lead in to the final end. This lead proved to be a winning one, and saw the Cramlington triple of Bryan Tuner, Dave Clough and Tony Fantozzi triumph and take the win 16 – 13.
The winning quarter finalists will take their places in the semi final programme next month.
To view the scores, draw – CLICK HERE.