By David Taylor

Last updated at 12:24, Thursday, 10 December 2009

The second leg of the Over-60 Inter County League clash with Lancashire was completed on Thursday and it proved to be an excellent result for Cumbria.

Having beaten Lancashire at Blackpool on the Monday, taking eight of the 10 points available, the Cumbria side took all 10 home points and, as a result, also collected the six points for the overall aggregate to give Cumbria a 24-point haul from the game.

Added to the impressive 24 points from the previous game against Yorkshire, this puts Cumbria in a strong position for the final round-robin game against Durham on January 7.

For Cumbria, skips Ron McMath and Anthony Little had their fours in exactly the right position throughout, McMath recording a mammoth 40-11 win while Little also won 30-11.

John Bell’s four did not scale the same heights but after trailing 17-12 with six to play switched into overdrive in the last quarter of the game to record a creditable 27-19 victory.

Durham were due to play Yorkshire yesterday and the result of this game could have a great bearing on who takes up the semi-final place as group winner. Lancashire took six points from Durham in their opening fixture so Cumbria already has a slight advantage and this advantage will be increased if Yorkshire can extract some of the points from Durham.

National Competitions

IN the national fours Jack Walker got off to a great start against Alan Walker and virtually had the game won in the first five ends when he led 15-1.

The addition of a seven on the seventh end only serving to confirm their eventual superiority.

In the pairs Gary Robertson and Ron McMath got off to a flyer also against Kevin Harrison and Stuart Irwin leading 9-0 after just four ends.

The younger pairing came back into the match and were just two adrift with seven to play but could never quite get to their opponents and in the closing stages Robertson and McMath went away once more to record a good 20-10 victory.

Danny May and Richard Chandler teamed up against Paul Campbell and the result went very much to form with the more experienced duo recording a comfortable win.

Last year’s national qualifiers, Eddie Murray and Gavin Taylor, came up against Neil Karge and Mark Nanson and they too made a slow start trailing 8-0 after just four ends.

They too fought back and were just four adrift with six to play but Karge and Nanson added a further eight shots in the next four ends to seal the victory.

David McManus and Anthony Little trailed David Linton and Rae Graham 15-8 after thirteen ends but a spirited recovery saw them not only catch their opponents but go on to lead by two playing the last and in losing just a single on the ultimate end scored a single shot win.

Under-25 Double Rink

Cumbria’s hopes of progress in this competition received a blow even before the game started when Danny May made himself unavailable.

Danny has been disappointed with some of his performances in recent weeks but his presence would still have been beneficial at this level.

As it was the home four were all out to gain a narrow victory but away from home the travelling four were well beaten.

Egham Trophy

Cumbria’s defeat in the Juniors was disappointing but worse was to come in the mixed inter club competition when the Egham side went down by four shots to York.

This was not expected to be an easy game but for much of the way the Carlisle side made it look that way. Fourteen up after the first quarter, that lead was maintained at halfway and when that rose to twenty one shots after 15 ends they looked to virtually home and dry.

It was not to be, however, for the slide began shortly after and by 18 ends the lead had dropped to just nine and in those last few ends another 13 shots disappeared to leave the York team with a very unexpected four shot win.

This was defeat snatched from the jaws of victory and has to go down as a bad result.

At home Stephen Farish kept concentration all the way to win 22-9 but Rae Graham having led 16-9 went down 19-17.

At York Anthony Little was always battling hard but lost out in the last few ends to go down 25-20 and Rick Gallagher who was four up at 15 ends also slipped away in the closing stages and went down 28-18.

Over-60 Double Rink

Cumbria IBC takes on Newcastle Eldon Square tomorrow morning at 11am.

Robin Thorburn, David McManus, Ron McMath and Joe Menzies will be at home while Tom Linton, Eddie McGarr, Anthony Little and John bell will travel to Newcastle.

Having played against the Newcastle side earlier in the season I am more than hopeful that the Cumbria IBC side will prove up to the task and earn themselves a place in the last sixteen.

Denny Cup

Looking ahead to this weekend and Cumbria IBC’s Denny side will be looking to keep up their challenge to retain their national title.

Nottingham will provide the opposition and they will most likely make sure that this is a stern test for the Cumbrians. Cumbria IBC is almost at full strength however and provided there is no repeat of the Egham performance I am hopeful that the side will provide a smart performance in line with their new appearance.

Lingford Trophy

The ladies are also in action this weekend and the Lingford side travel to meet York on Sunday at Darlington commencing at noon. The selected side is Linda Rose, Debbie Cook, Janice Gower and Sue Devlin, Dianne Fieldhouse and Karen Edmondson.

Mason Trophy

The Mason side will host Newton Hall Blackpool on Sunday at 11am and the chosen side for this game is Betty Lindsay, Margaret Docherty, Christine Wharton, Eleanor Gass and Jackie Wilson, Dorothy Gowling, Sylvia Clark and Cindy Edmondson.

Harry Brockbank

Many of today’s members of Cumbria IBC will not be familiar with the name Harry Brockbank.

But Harry who is one of just four Life Members of the club has a special date on Saturday as he will be celebrating his 100th birthday.

Harry who played his outdoor bowls at West End, was around at the formation of the Club in the mid seventies. He was chairman of the club committee and indeed chaired the first meeting of the committee which was held in the new club.

Harry did not serve for long as chairman as the position was far more onerous than at present with 25 meetings per year as opposed to today’s figures when there are just two or three meetings per year.

It was also an important position at an important time in the formation of the new club and Harry undoubtedly played a major part particularly in the many fund raising events which were held to get the foundling club on its feet.

Though he has not played bowls for some time Harry retains an interest and attended the club’s 25th anniversary in 2000.

We hope that he has an enjoyable day on Saturday.

Over-50 Triples League

This league has had a rather unfortunate start to the season but results and an updated league table should be available next week, though the Cumbria IBC B team has now been forced to withdraw because of lack of support.

FIXTURE AND TEAMS

Cumbria IBC v Nottingham IBC Denny Cup Saturday December 12, 10am

Home: N Karge, M Nanson, I Gallagher, S Airey; K Harrison, R Gass, A Baxter, S Farish

Away: P Barlow, D Linton, M Rice, T Taylor; E Murray, R Gallagher, R Graham, G Taylor

Weekend Programme

Sunday 10am R McGhie v R McMath Over 50 Triples

Sunday 2pm G Robson v R Graham Triples

First published at 11:22, Thursday, 10 December 2009
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk