The Road maintain top spot in bowls league

Leaders Carlton Road looked vulnerable against a struggling A40 team, playing with no consistency.

Skip Chris Gill led 12-5 for the Road but was closed down in the latter stages by Jean Cammack.

But he hung on to win the points 15-12.

The game decider was in the early stages on end five when Chris picked up a count of four.

Ian Clark, Sue Simpson Shaw and Les Feary were in control at end 14, leading 20-7, but they promptly dropped counts of 1-3-5 which saw their advantage closed down to four shots.

Les claimed the last two ends played to win 22-16.

The Road have a clear eight-point advantage at the top.

Eastenders dropped a point against Jolly Farmers.

Richard Vinter, Louise Catchpole and Paul Flatters won their game decisively (27-12) but a 19-19 draw is not what they expected from the other half of the team.

Invaders met Red 5, the former winning five of the six points at stake.

Chantal Spencer, John Spencer and Rod West triumphed 32-7 and Adam Hodgeson, Sandra Tebbs and Scott Whyers were held to a tied game of 20-20 by Red 5’s Colin Price, Mandy Cook and Bob Lody, a great recovery by the latter as they trailed 9-17.

Holland Fen’s Mick Tomlin had no problem winning his points from Norprint, picking up a hot shot plus a count of five and four counts of four on his way to a success of 38-14.

Ron Flowers was 0-8 down at five ends but recovered to win 25-14, but it was not easy.

Punchbowlers and Royal Mail shared the rink points, but it was underdogs Royal Mail who claimed the aggregate points thanks to Neil Harrison, Alan Hill and Roy Vinter, who came from behind to win 23-18.

Replying for the Bowlers, Dave Peacock, Bunny Reeson and Steve Skelton - 10-3 behind at nine ends - still trailed at 17 ends.

But a 2-1-1 counter attack saw them clinch two points, succeeding 15-16 against the Mail’s top trio.

Possibly the best result of the evening’s play was Strollers’ total eclipse of IBC.

Rob Cooper, Alex Seaton and Alan Everitt came from 2-7 down against Ted Bourne, Tony Powell and Stan Lawrence to triumph 19-12.

Edna Priestley, Jean Woods and Bernard Woods dropped a count of one on the first end played and that was the only time they were behind as IBC captain Richard White could not contain them and they strolled away with a victory of 21-7.

In the T&B Containers Division Two, Parthians’ lead at the top was closed down to five points as their nearest rivals Breakaways picked up five of the six points at stake.

The result could have been all six but Parthians captain Keith Nix - trailing 14-12 - closed the game out with two counts of one to tie 14-14 against Ivan Dilley.

Breakaways’ Mark Brown, Carol Dowse and Gordon Gallichan proved to strong on the night for skip Pete Bedford and claimed the rest of the points with a clear margin and success of 21-10.

Third-placed Autos could only win one point from their game against Cosmos.

Norman Wright dropped a count of one on the last end played to tie 14-14 with Bob Thompson. Winning the rest of the points for the Cosmos team, Jean Thompson triumphed 20-15.

Feathers moved into third spot, picking up all the points from the Burtons.

Skips Geoff Dawson and Brian Sansam had successes of 20-11 and 14-8.

Poachers and Vikings shared the rink points, but it was higher team Poachers who won the additional points thanks to the success of Doreen Sharp, Eric Ulyatt and Mick Dodes with a win of 35-8.

Vikings’ Keith Stones produced a winning scorecard of 12-16, enough for two points only

Boston Park could not contain Patriarchs, with skips Tony Beck and Colin Baxter successful 28-10 and 23-10.

In the Cammacks Division Three, leaders Fairways were matched against Nomads.

The latter were under strength in numbers but, nevertheless, Kate Maddison, Barry Beagles and Mel Maddison beat the leaders’ Mavis Ablard, Hazel Smith and Carol Nundy 19-14.

The rest of the points went to the leaders.

Dynamics, in second, closed the gap to just two points when they succeeded on both rinks against Central.

Jonathan West won 18-8 and Graham Wilkinson produced a 24-11 winning scorecard.

Amateurs, in third, dropped four points to third-from-bottom Hotspurs.

For the higher team, Brian Martin, Ann Thomas and John Smith won 12-17, but this scoreline was surpassed by Hotspurs’ John Fell, Roy Pepperdine and Robert Druce, who succeeded 23-15, which won them four points.

As expected, Shipmates proved too strong for Bias.

For the Shipmates, William Parker aided by Pat Pitts and Richard Sharp, won 25- 8.

The rest of the points went to Shipmates thanks to the trio of Taylor-Robinson-Robinson, who trailed 1-7 at five ends, 4-8 at seven and then had a burst of scoring ends to pick up nine shots with out reply to lead 13-8, winning 16-13.

Phoenix and U3 shared the rink points with the bottom team Phoenix surprisingly winning the aggregate points thanks to a win of 23-8 from Sheila Collingwood, Tony Collingwood and Gordon Neal who, 10-1 ahead, stayed in control to secure the points.