Bowls round-up - Spa ladies take on champions in national Top Club quarter-finals

Royal Leamington Spa’s ladies dreams of National Top Club bowls glory were ended in the quarter-finals last weekend at Victoria Park, by 2018 and 2019 winners Kings BC from Torquay.

In their first ever appearance in the final stages of the competition, Spa allowed Kings to build early leads in both the triples and fours games but looked strong in the other two games.

In the singles game, Anita Cowdrill proved tough opposition for England international and Commonwealth Games gold medalist Sophie Tolchard.

With little to separate the two, Cowdrill actually led 15-14 at one stage but Tolchard’s class showed as she finished strongly to take the match 21-15.

It was a similar story in the pairs. Spa’s Dawn Horne and Enid Reece led for 15 ends against a Kings pair skipped by another England international and Commonwealth Games Gold medallist, Natalie Chestney, but dropped shots on the last three ends saw them beaten 17-11.

With Sandra Payne, Bonny Claridge and Jenny Wickens losing 27-16 in the triples and Caroline Edwards, Caroline Williams, Cynthia Briggs and Tracey Turner-Smith beaten 28-6 in the fours, it was a disappointing end to Spa’s long run in a competition that Kings went on to win the following day for the third successive year.

For their weekend friendly match last week, Spa’s men made the short trip to play Lillington in a 5 triples match. With Dave Gardner beating Martin Preedy 16-12 and Mervyn Taylor defeating Colin Daly 17-16, wins for Lillington’s Malcolm Welch over Greville Reader (16-13) and John Henfrey against Eric Smith (16-15), left the outcome of the match in the balance. However Spa’s Ed Tooker, Paul Smith and Dave Turner proved the difference on the day as they overcame Nigel Roach 21-7 to help secure an 82-67 victory.

SOUTHAM

Southam recorded a narrow win away against Ilmington in their KDL match 34-31.

The highest winning rink was skipped by Denis Ward with Terry Dunne, John Dover, Bob Freeman who led from the start 10-2 up at 10 ends winning 19-12.

Bob Jardine (skip) Tony Hoffman, Peter Godfrey, Ken Tredgold were 2-5 down at 10 ends but rallied to win 11-8.

Wendy Jeffs (skip) Heather Tredgold, David Adnitt, Barbara Godfrey were always in catch up 1-5 down at 10 ends losing 4-11.

They lost by a smaller margin in their KDL match at home to Snitterfield 52-53.

The highest winning rink was skipped by Bob Jardine with Stuart Dunne, Brian Meacham, Ken Tredgold who were never in trouble winning 22-10.

Denis Ward (skip) Terry Dunne, Bob Freeman, Jamie Langston were 12-13 down at 10 ends but pulled away to win 20-16.

Wendy Jeffs (skip) Heather Tredgold, David Adnitt, Sheila Lyne were never in contention 7-19 down at 10 ends losing 10-27.