Stuart Greenhalgh updates us on the Mid Cheshire crown green bowling scene…

THE Roberts Bakery Trophy was played over two days last week, with Thursday for qualifying and Friday being the finals night.

The last sixteen brought about the exit of two Cheshire county bowlers, with Dan Hazeldine beating Kevin Duncalf and Owen Cookson defeating clubmate Danny Nixon 21-20.

Rob Winnington, playing off -2, fought back from 15-0 to win 21-15.

The last eight produced some exciting matches, with Owen Cookson ending the hopes of another clubmate Tom Vickers (-1) 21-14.

In the second game Winnington beat Hazeldine 21-14. Game three saw James Gurney despatch Adam Bloor, who were both playing off +1, 21-7.

John Rawlinson saw off Glynn Cookson 21-16 in the final game of the last eight.

The first semi-final paired Owen Cookson with last year’s winner Winnington.

The game could not have been closer with both bowlers doing all they could to reach the final.

In the end it was Winnington who just took the match 21-20 on the last end, beating a two-foot lead bowl from Owen Cookson. Gurney took the second semi-final 21-15 against John Rawlinson.

The final pitched together two of Mid Cheshire’s best – Gurney, although bowling in the first division most Premier clubs would happily have him bowling for them, and Winnington, who was defending the trophy.

The final started with Winnington trying to eat away at the handicap and he went into an 11-7 lead.

Gurney fought back to hit the front 13-12. It was nip and tuck until at 18-15 Winnington got a double and a single giving him the win and the £400 prize.

Meanwhile, Red Lion Ladies continued their dominance of the Mid Cheshire Women’s League.

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They recorded their fourth full house in only seven matches.

Barnton A were the latest to face a side that had not dropped a single point at home, so they were up against it.

The hosts won 168-95 but with 95 chalks Barnton became the highest scorers by a distance playing away at Red Lion.

In a match between the second and third place teams, Castle Ladies kept themselves in second place with a good home win against Norley A. Castle had six winners to Norley’s two in a 156-108 success.

In Division Two, leaders Bostock Ladies had a good win at home to Hartford 149-124.

Barnton B drew closer to Bostock with a great home win against Cuddington Ladies 163-105.

Mid Cheshire County women play Greater Manchester on Sunday.

Their home tie will be at Castle Sports starting at 2pm.

A good win for Mid Cheshire over both home and away legs could be significant in the division with the table being as close as it is. A big crowd there to support them would be handy.

Meanwhile, very much like England football team, Mid Cheshire Federation take you on an incredibly stressful ride.

First four home and away games against Wallasey, Mid Cheshire lost six and won two. Mark Ball won 21-13 away and Simon White won 21-9.

The stress at that point was high, but once again the middle four at home turned it around with Nick Hamman winning 21-20, Dan Hazeldine winning 21-11 and James Gurney winning 21-5.

Away from home the middle four also had a revival with captain Andy Gregory winning 21-8 and Graham Donnelly winning 21-17.

Staying at the away green, the first two games of the back four gave two incredible wins, Adrian Faulkner 21-18 and Paul Dooley 21-4.

Back to the home side, the last four gave us two more winners with Josh Towey 21-20 and Ant Lloyd 21-3.

The scoring in Federation is a bit complicated ¬- every player that wins earns a point, then you get two points for the home and away aggregate, last of all when the scores are combined the winning team gets four extra points.

So even though Mid Cheshire had 11 winners to their 13, winning the three aggregate awards of an additional eight points means they won the match 19-13.

Now we must watch next month’s games and hope we go up.