By David Taylor

Last updated at 12:32, Thursday, 12 November 2009

Bowlers from Cumbria’s three affiliated clubs joined forces on Saturday and made the trip across the Pennines for the county’s first round Liberty Trophy match against Lincolnshire at York.

The side looked to be fairly strong and they certainly proved to be too much of a handful for the Lincoln side and emerged with a highly satisfactory 35-shot win overall.

As a contest the game was over almost before it had begun. Cumbria led by 22 shots after just five ends, extended to 30 at halfway, emphasised their domination moving to 37 at eighteen ends and cruised to the final 35 shot total with some ease.

Ian Gallagher produced the best performance in beating Dan Brown 21-7, while Stuart Airey skipped his four to an 11-shot win over M Smith.

Gavin Taylor was just behind that result when beating T Bannister by 10 and Stephen Farish finished eight ahead of G Smith.

The only defeats were suffered by Andrew Baxter, who went down by the minimum margin to Geoff Plaskitt, and Trevor Taylor, who was unfortunate to lose by eight to Scott Dunham.

This was a highly satisfactory performance although the full ability of the side was never really tested.

That test is likely to come in the next round when Cumbria will meet Durham at Carlisle on Saturday week. Durham ended Cumbria’s hopes last year at West Denton but I do feel that the Cumbria side is a little stronger this year and given that the game will take place at the home club of the majority of the team then I am looking forward to a favourable outcome. Team news next week.

Cumbria IBC suffered a rare reverse on Friday when the club’s B side went down at Carlisle to Blackpool Newton Hall.

It was not a totally unexpected result and the home side did well for much of the match. It was only really in the closing stages that the Blackpool side really asserted to go on and win by 17 shots.

Joan Huntington skipped her four to a creditable single shot defeat against C Bamber but Sheena Kirkpatrick faced an uphill battle against M Leslie and went down 28-12.

The opening league games of the season were completed on Sunday and Cumbria IBC’s two sides took on Dalston’s two teams. At Carlisle the home side came out on top new member Ray Gall skipping his trio to an impressive 25-8 win over Dave Rawlings, though the visitors struck back through Jim Coward who defeated Peck Orchard 23-16. With two points each for the individual rinks Cumbria collected 5 of the 7 aggregate points to win the game 7-4 overall.

At Dalston the home side showed themselves to be in good form Stephen Watson beating John Brew 26-8 and Tom Alberti proving 18-14 too strong for David Taylor to leave the home side with 10 points and a single point consolation for the visitors.

Cumbria’s Juniors met Durham in the National double rink on Sunday and whilst the home four skipped by Martin Rice came out just on top the travelling four skipped by Danny May had a torrid day. 17-3 down at ten ends they did muster some rather sterner resistance in the second half of the game but still went down 26-6 to see Durham through 41-21 overall.

There were quite a number of singles games completed during the last week and though there were no major surprises there was the odd result which may have raised an eyebrow.

After a fairly even start Eddie Murray enjoyed a purple patch mid way through his game against Rae Graham which proved the deciding factor in his 21-11 win.

In a fairly close game Ian Gallagher looked the likely winner for much of the way but Kevin Harrison stuck to his task in determined fashion and that resilience won him the game for having been 20-17 down and picked up four consecutive single to snatch the game.

Rick Gallagher remains a consistent performer and he had a bit in hand in scoring a comfortable win over Paul Campbell.

It was a similar story in the game between Gavin Taylor and Graeme Shepherd with the more experienced players making it count. Likewise David McManus had too many guns for Joe Carr in the Senior Singles and after a fairly even first half Anthony Little went away from Sandy Kirkpatrick in the second half of f his game. John Crozier got off to a flyer against Ron Gass in his game and led 16-3 before Gass got into his stride and began reducing the deficit.

Against a player of Crozier’s calibre however it was always going to too little too late and Crozier went through 21-13. Geordie McCullough made a bright start to his game against Roger McGhie picking up five shots on the first two end but he was unable to sustain that level of performance and McGhie came through for a comfortable 21-13 win.

Looking ahead to this Saturday and National Champions Cumbria IBC will be in action once more when taking on South Shields on Saturday morning.

This should be a reasonable contest but Cumbria will surely be good enough to make it through to the next round.

Team manager Paul Barlow has made only one change to the side which accounted for Stanley IBC in the last round, Rick Gallagher coming back into the side to replace Ron Gass. The game commences at the usual 10am and the full side is shown below.

Before that game on Saturday Cumbria IBC’s A team will be taking on Tynedale club Hexham on Friday at noon.

Tom Linton, Eddie McGarr, Anthony Little and John Bell will be playing at Carlisle while Robin Thorburn, Dave McManus, Ron McMath and Joe Menzies will travel across to Hexham.

The Northumberland club has produced a number of useful players in recent years but doubts about the club’s future appear to have undermined some of its more recent performances and I expect Cumbria IBC players to be up to the task.

On Sunday, Cumbria IBC’s Juniors will be in action when taking on North Shields Club The Parks. The Carlisle club produced a good performance to beat Thornaby albeit only just in the last round but will need to be at their best especially as Danny May is unable to play in this game. Jonathon Fieldhouse, Lewis parker, Mark Irwin and Stephen Green will play at home while Kevin Harrison, Ryan Baxter, Gary Robertson and Martin Rice will make the trip to the north east for the game which commences at noon.

Another busy Sunday is in prospect as Cumbria IBC take on near neighbours Copeland in the National mixed inter Club knockout. Cumbria will no doubt start the game as favourites but there is always the added spice when playing a local derby and I expect the Cleator Club to make a bold showing. This game also commences at midday.

Despite the fact that the unification issue was to be determined at the County Annual General Meeting on Wednesday, it was to say the least a modest turnout with quite a number of Clubs not being represented.

There was little discussion on any item on the agenda and most items were nodded through. It is also a concern that again this year there was no nomination for the office of junior vice-president.

Friday: 12.00 Cumbria IBC v Tynedale IBC Over 60 Double Rink; 6.30 N Karge v R Gass Singles

Saturday 10.00 Cumbria IBC v South Shields IBC Denny Cup; A little v J Morris Senior Pairs; C Horsfield v G Shepherd Pairs

Sunday: 10.00 E McGarr v J Menzies Senior Pairs; 12.00 Cumbria IBC v The Parks IBC Under 25 Double Rink; 12.00 Cumbria IBC v Copeland IBC Egham Trophy

Tuesday 12.00 G Taylor v J Menzies Singles

Cumbria IBC v Copeland IBC Egham Trophy Sunday 12.00

Home: S Devlin, D Fieldhouse, J Wills, R Graham, E Gass, M Kelton, I Gallagher, G Taylor

Away: L Rose, C Wharton, M Nanson, R Gallagher,C Edmondson, J Wilson, D McManus, A Little

First published at 11:36, Thursday, 12 November 2009
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk