Writtle and Chelmsford Bowls season hots up

5:48am Thursday 7th August 2008

WITH the end of the season looming Writtle men's A, B and C teams face the challenge of avoiding relegation in their respective divisions of the Chelmsford and District League.

With this in mind Writtle A played Burnham A and Writtle B team took on Stock A at home on Wednesday, 30 July. On the same day Writtle C played South Woodham Ferrers away.

Writtle A got off to a good start with Rink 2 finishing their game first. Each end was closely contested but by the 10th end Writtle was leading by 12 shots to 2. However with some shots being decided by the smallest of margins Skip Mike Fell, John Robinson, Terry Arthur and John Jones could not afford to relax. Writtle did manage to come out on top winning by 27 shots to 7 but the game was closer than the score suggests.

On rink 3 however it was a different story and, with the Burnham Skip in tremendous form, Writtle Skip Derek Cook, Mike Wakeling, Paul Essam and Paul Brandis suffered a heavy defeat with a final score of 7 shots to 33. Rink 1 was the last to complete their game and their contribution to the overall shots tally became significant after the score difference on rink 3.

Skip, Ian Smith, Peter Groves, David Spence and Dave Franklin had looked comfortable all through the game but it became vital for them not to let Burnham close the winning margin if Writtle were to take the much needed 8 points from the game.

With dusk drawing in quickly and the pressure mounting Smith and his team held their nerve and managed to finish the game with a score of 22 points to 10. This gave Writtle an overall score of 56 to 50 and earned them four points as overall winners and 2 points for each winning rink giving a total of 8 much needed league points.

They face Billericay A in their next match on 6 August.

Writtle B team had a disappointing result in their contest against Stock A Skip John Drake, Dennis Swann, Peter Hawkins and Eddie Maycock took an early lead on their rink and by the 14th end were winning 20 shots to 8. However Stock came back and by the 19th end were only 2 shots behind at 21 to 19. The game was lost for Writtle on the last 2 ends when Stock managed to take 6 shots giving a final score of Writtle 21 and Stock 25. Skip, Roger Day, Tony Lambert, Merv Little and Peter Storry had a close game on their rink but managed to stay just ahead of Stock by holding their form and came out winners at 23 shots to 17.

Skip Peter Horn, Cyril Ashford, Bernard Cann and Doug Hobart took an early lead and were 4 shots to 3 at the 6th end. However Stock began to pull away and came out comfortable winners at 28 shots to 11.

IT WAS a marvellous week for the Chelmsford and District Bowling Club in the two local leagues that they play in.

The club field eight league teams each week across two leagues. All eight teams were in action with six of them recording wins with a couple of the teams playing two games as a result of cancellations through unfit green earlier in the season.

In Division 1 Chelmsford A team improved their chances of winning this league by beating Billericay A and Falcon A and gaining maximum points. Chelmsford B continued their recent good form to beat Danbury A and Great Baddow B to put them in striking distance of the Div 2 leaders.

Chelmsford C In Division 4 had an excellent ten points win over PML B. Chelmsford D play in Division 5 and beat Billericay B. The winning ways continued in the Central Midweek BL with Chelmsford A beating PML C in Division 3 to improve their leading position and now only require five points from their last two matches to capture the title. Chelmsford B in Division 2 came unstuck against Falcon B who took maximum points from this game.

Chelmsford C lead Division 4 but they had a set back with Maldon B beating them and taking maximum points. Chelmsford D had a good win against bottom team Ingatestone B to open up a twenty four point gap.

l Last week's matches for Chelmsford in the Chelmsford & District BA League were - Chelmsford A 64 (10 pts) Billericay A 41 (0) - Fred Dowding 25 Jim Pemberton 9, Stan Slater 20 Len Parmenter 14, Robert Walker 19 Eddie Dennison 18. Chelmsford A 71 (10) Falcon A 48 (0) - Fred Dowding 24 Barrie Crowe 18, Robert Walker 26 Mark Morhall 18, Stan Slater 21 Martin King 12. Division 2 - Chelmsford B 66 (7) Maldon B 53 (3) - Martyn Gardner 29 Tom Courtney 12, Ray Walker 17 Jim Thompson 21, Bob Barnett 20 Derek Powell 20. Chelmsford B 66 (8) Gt Baddow B 45 (2) - Ray Walker 27 John Parkinson 12, Martyn Gardner 17 Keith Buckingham 18, Adrian Thomas 22 Eric Milburn 15. Division 4 - Chelmsford C 78 (10) PML B 45 (0) - Ron Page 22 Les Totham 11, Ray Allen 31 Alan Marlow 13, Derek Flack 25 Gerry Glickman 21. Division 5 - Chelmsford D 55 (8) Billericay B 44 (2) - Bernie Pitt 19 H Wedge 9, Laurie Boyall 15 D Hayter 18, Malcolm Elsey 21 N Bunce 17.

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