By David Taylor

Last updated at 12:35, Thursday, 04 February 2010

Cumbria's Senior County side made the trip to Leeds on Tuesday hoping to improve on last year’s semi final defeat when beaten by Berkshire at Doncaster.

It was not to be, however, for while the loss at Doncaster last year was fairly close, the defeat on Tuesday was nothing less than comprehensive.

The Over-60s began well enough leading by seven after the first quarter but from then on it was downhill all the way and the final margin of defeat, 39 shots, was to say the least disconcerting.

On the plus side, the fours, skipped by Ron McMath and John Bell, racked up 11 and eight-shot wins while Ray Gall and Anthony Little maintained respectability going down 10 shots and eight shots.

However, the fours skipped by Joe Menzies and David McManus endured torrid afternoons.

Menzies set off well enough but after just five ends was fighting a losing battle while McManus was fighting a losing battle throughout and both finished 20 shots adrift of their opposition.

Overall, it was a similar story as at Doncaster last year with many players performing at levels below those which they are capable of at Carlisle and perhaps the fact many of our players do not regularly play away from their home green does have a significant effect on performance in games such as this.

Whatever the reason the County Association will need to look at ways to considerably improve the side if this particular competition is to become a realistic target for Cumbrians.

National Competitions

In the national singles regional semi-final David Forster, who has hit a rich vein of form in recent weeks, continued in excellent style when beating Eddie Murray 21-8 at Carlisle.

Forster had eclipsed David Baxter at Copeland in the last round and produced another fine performance to beat Murray here.

Always in control of the game, he led 11-7 after 11 ends but improved as the game progressed to score an emphatic 21-8 win.

In the final he will meet either Mark Nanson or Trevor Taylor.

In the pairs both semi-finals have now been completed and it was a case of seventh heaven for both winning duos.

At Carlisle Trevor Taylor and Ian Gallagher met Neil Karge and Mark Nanson and the former pair held a two shot lead after 12 ends.

In the next three ends, however, Karge and Nanson picked up 12 shots including a somewhat inglorious seven on the 15th which transformed the game and just two ends later it was all over at 26-14.

In the other semi-final which was played at Copeland David Forster Senior and Jack Walker looked like producing a shock when playing really well to dominate the first half of their game against Paul Barlow and Stephen Farish.

Again however a seven on the tenth end followed by a five on the eleventh transformed this game and in the second half the Carlisle pair went right away to win 32-19.

Looking ahead to this weekend the only confirmed men’s game is the semi-final of the fours when Rae Graham plays Anthony Little at 2.00pm on Sunday though it is possible that the triples semi-final between Stephen Farish and Rick Gallagher may be played on Saturday morning with the possibility of an early start.

County Triples League

Cumbria A scored a maximum 11-0 points win over Eden. Sal Panico winning 19-12 against H Beech and Peter Pattinson beating Colin Lusby 37-6.

In the all Copeland clash, the A side as expected came out well on top taking all 11 points.

Ladies Nationals

Some of the zone finals were completed at Thornaby at the weekend and there was joy as well as controversy for Cumbria IBC’s players.

The good news is that both the fours and the triples won their games but on the down side the pairs was not played as the opposition from Scarborough did not arrive until about 12.15pm for the game which had a scheduled start time of 10.30am.

Poor arrangements, there was no national body representative at Thornaby, meant that resolving the problem was done or should I say attempted by telephone.

The rules state that teams arriving more than thirty minutes late will concede the game unless there are exceptional circumstances.

The reason given here was a broken windscreen, not during the journey I should add but before the opposition had actually set off.

In these circumstances one would have thought that they could still have arrived rather sooner than they did and the eventual ruling that the tie will be now be played once again at Thornaby on Monday evening seems unfair to the Cumbrians who have already travelled 200 miles and made an overnight stay.

I feel that the opposition should perhaps have been allowed to play but on a neutral green nearer Carlisle, Penrith would have been much fairer.

On the plus side Cindy Edmondson, Jackie Wilson, Sylvia Clark, and Karen Edmondson were successful in the fours while in the triples Cindy Edmondson, Janice Gower and Karen Edmondson made it through in the triples, a super last bowl of the game from Karen sealing the victory. Karen will have the opportunity of a clean sweep when travelling to Darlington on Saturday for her singles final.

First published at 11:28, Thursday, 04 February 2010
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk