Mid Cheshire crown green bowling competition and league results

CASTLE A remain top of the Mid Cheshire League top section with an impressive win at Alsager.

They only had one loss, beating Alsager 207-143.

Wharton Cons A only had two losers away at Castle Sports B, beating the home side 200-145.

Frodsham Red Lion A stay in third place but picked up their third maximum score of the season, 210-127 at home against Owley Wood A.

Post Office, in fourth place, could only field eight players in their away tie against Kingswood BC. This goes a small way to explaining the result, Kingswood 188 Crewe PO 127.

Meanwhile, last Monday’s matches in Mid Cheshire Ladies Crown Green Bowling League Division One brought three home wins with only four points dropped over the three games.

Winnington Ladies scored the maximum in beating Davenham 168-68.

Barnton A had a home win against Lady Owls 166-122.

Red Lion Ladies had another commanding win 166-94 against Norley A.

Castle Ladies kept up the high scoring home ties the following night, winning 164-91 against Bunbury.

In Division Two, Bostock Ladies had a full house at home to Cuddington Ladies, 168-99. This leaves Bostock on top with Moulton Ladies second and Barnton B third.

Mid Cheshire Ladies county team played their last league match in section three against Greater Manchester.

Mid Cheshire lost the away leg at Orrell YM 237-206. Wendy Allen, Carol Latham, Lisa Downes, Paula Whelan and Sandra Gilfedder all won away. Andrea Bell and Pat Newhouse both lost 21-20 in games that could have easily been wins.

The home tie at Castle Sports, in front of a good crowd, was a hard game on a tricky green for Mid Cheshire.

They got off to a great start with Nicola Boulton, Viv Raddy and Dawn Nield all winning in the first four.

In the second four, Cindie Mclean and Tamsin Birkett both won, but in the last four Alisha Marshall was Mid Cheshire’s only winner.

With six winners each Mid Cheshire Ladies just won 188-184, but lost the match overall and ended third in their section.

The final night of the Castle Sports Classic was played out, bringing together some of the top bowlers from around the counties.

The first game up was local favourite Tom Vickers playing Ant Lloyd from The Potteries, although he plays in the Mid Cheshire.

The match was nip and tuck until Vickers started to draw away until he got to 20 then Lloyd fought back to take the game 21-20.

Former winner Matt Gilmore had a comfortable win in the first round.

And reigning champion Greg Smith came through 21-12 against Adam Bishop.

In the quarter-finals Lloyd continued playing well until he hit 20. Lee Johnstone fought back to 20-17, he then threw the block off allowing Lloyd to set the mark and get the win.

Gilmore had a much harder game against John Short, just nicking it 21-20.

Smith eased into the semi-finals, beating John Brown.

Matty Worden, in the last quarter-final against Chris Charlton, managed to get through unscathed.

In the semi-finals, Gilmore continued to show the ability that had seen him progress. Lloyd played probably his worst match of the competition, and although he still played some marvellous woods, Gilmore eased to victory.

The second player to get into the final was Matty Worden, who just took the spot defeating Gregg Smith 21-18.

The final looked like it might be an anti-climax as Gilmore ran away to a 15-4 lead.

Worden, though, is a different player with the block in his hand and fought all the way back to 18 before Gilmore hit 21.

Gilmore becomes the first bowler to win this competition twice.

Credit must be given to Aidy Faulkner for the running of this competition and all those club members who helped throughout the Castle Sports Classic.