Bowls round-up: Desborough Bowls Club through to the final of the County Double fours

Marion Pelling

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Desborough BC

Desborough are through to the final of the County Double fours, having overcome Windsor Great Park, Great Hollands, Royal Household and now Tilehurst en route. They will take on Thatcham in the final at Reading on September 7.

Paul Winstanley’s first experience of captaining Desborough is not one he’ll want to remember as the club fell to a 73-58 defeat against Great Hollands. The Green Lane club won only one of the four rinks, that of Marion Pelling, John Skinner and Dave Hasler who won 17-16 victory.

In the Kennet League the A team claimed a 10-4 win over Sunningdale while the B team beat Wokingham C 12-2 in their final match. There were mixed fortunes for the club’s KLV sides with the A team winning 8-2 against Windsor & Eton and the B team going down by the same scoreline to Windsor Great Park.

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Maidenhead Town BC

Maidenhead Town’s Kennet A team signed off their season with a seven-shot defeat to Windsor & Eton (10-4 on points).

Town finished the season in the top half of the league having picked up a few notable wins along the way.

There were two winning rinks for Town, the best of them being skipped by Elliot Winskill with Eksten Traut, Tony Roberts and John Mitchell (24-15).

Town’s other winning rink was that of skip Ian Wright, Malcolm Tingle, Colin Brown and John Butchart, who started slowly but recovered to win 18-12.

Town’s B team won their pentultimate match 87-80 at home to Wokingham. Town had three winning rinks, with top rink going to John Williams, Keith Thompson, Derek Jackson and skip Richard Smith (25-16). Their last game is against Desborough this week.

In the KLV, Town B enjoyed a comfortable away win over Thicket to secure top spot. With wins on two of the rinks and a draw on the third, Town won 63-38. Steve Wheeler’s triple of Keith Thompson and Eddie Cutche won 24-11. John Butchart’s triple of Richard Smith and Derek Jackson won their game 22-10.

Town’s C team had a lucky home win over Sunningdale, thanks to Paul Stanley, Bill Pearson and skip Pash Bhardwaj’s triple, who came home to win by 25 shots. With losses on the other two rinks, Town edged it 52-45.

In the TVL Town picked up a valuable four points from their game against Suttons, picking up wins on two of the rinks. However, Suttons edged it by three shots (50-47). Top rink went to Kathy Leonard, Yoneko Stuart and skip Mary Mackay (24-15).

On Saturday, High Wycombe claimed revenge over Town with a 122-71 victory. Town did manage two winning rinks, with Andy Mayne skipping Paul Embling, John Barrett and Yoneko Stuart to top rink honours (21-15). Tony Roberts skipped the other winning rink with Janet Jones, Roy Palmer and Sue Page (22-21).

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Sunningdale BC

Bracknell will take a healthy lead into the second leg of the Cyril Hughes Cup after their 52 shot win over Sunningdale this week. The second leg will take place at Sunningdale this week.

Sunningdale were much improved in their 95-90 friendly win over Windsor & Eton, with Jan Aldridge, Barry Hobbs and Don Allston (skip) playing their best rink.

In the Kennet League Sunningdale ended a disappointing season with defeat at Desborough A. In the LV Division Sunningdale A were beaten 9-1 on points by Royal Household. Sunningdale B played out a closer game at Maidenhead Town C, picking up four points to their hosts’ six. They finished third overall in East Division 2.

Sunningdale’s Les Green will play in the final of Berkshire’s County 2 Wood Champion of Champions match after beating Lambourn’s D Taylor. The final will take place at Reading on September 7.

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Twyford BC

Twyford’s KL Division 3 team picked up only one point from their trip to Reading B on Tuesday last week, going down 13-1 on points. The visitors managed to draw on just one rink. Led by Nick Orde (19-19), but suffered losses on the other three, led by Barry Carter (22-17), Paul Hynes (23-19) and Wayne Manley (26-19) and lost the match 90-74.

There was a big improvement in Wednesday’s mixed friendly at home to Burghfield, which Twyford won by 22 shots. The best rink was led by Nick Orde (25-11).

A close game against Maidenhead Thicket resulted in a two shot win for Twyford (37-35).

Twyford will be promoted to the KLV Central East Division 1 after finishing second in Division 2 this season. Twyford beat Wargrave away from home on all three triples to seal their elevation to the league above. Barry Carter (17-14), Brian Stain (26-6 and Nick Orde (17-7) all led winning rinks in the 60-27 victory. They picked up all 10 points available to them.

Twyford played well in blustery conditions to win 88-58 at Trentham on Saturday. Rain halted play but not the rinks led by Barry Carter (31-10) and Phil Rose (26-7) who won convincingly.

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Royal Household BC

Royal Household’s ladies remain on course to retain their Royal Shield trophy after an emphatic 10-0 points win over Windsor & Eton this week. Victory takes them 14 points clear at the top of the league.

Top rink honours went to Julia Conway, captain Lorna Craig and skip Dee Prior (20-6). The men have progressed to the quarter finals of the county double fours after home and away wins over Hurst (51-23). The home team were skipped by Michael Thornton, with Mark Stanley, Alan Speller and David Dixon (29-12) and the away team at Hurst were Colin Carson, Marc Leyton-Smith, George Burbridge and skip Graham Crisp (22-11).

The Kennet League team claimed a 12-2 win at Maidenhead Town after victories on all three rinks. George Burbridge, Mick Sayers, Tom Dynan and Colin Carson took top rink (18-11).

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Windsor & Eton BC

The KLV season came to an end with matches for the ‘A’ and ‘B’ teams. The ‘A’ team suffered a perhaps predictable loss of 36-68 at home to league winners, Maidenhead Town ‘A’. With one rink drawn and two lost, the points tally was 1-9 in favour of the visitors.

A slightly less painful defeat befell the ‘B’ team in their away match to Desborough ‘A’. With a close shot score of 50-56, but winning only one rink, the points were 2-8 against W&E.

With the club tour days away, there was one weekend friendly, requiring a short trip to Sunningdale. Some heavy losses on a couple of rinks led to a small overall loss of 90-95. Top rink players were Andree Mooney, Derek Smith and Jim Henderson, who reduced the deficit with an impressive tally of 24-7.