HEATON HALL MEMBERS SHINE BRIGHT
Today saw the first of our County Competitions get underway at Southport in the shape of the 2 Bowl singles event.
First in the ladies event, despite a very small field of just 11 players the bowls was still a good standard.
In the first Semi Final, Gillian Hinsley (Heaton Hall) faced Clare Fletcher (Bolton), with Gillian continuing her consistent form it was a rather one sided tie with Gillian running away with 15-4.
In the second Semi Final, 16 year old new comer Chloe Smith (Heaton Hall) faced the very experienced Barbara Knowles (Bolton). Young Chloe got off to a fantastic 12-1 lead, however, after dropping the jack short of 23m, Barbara took full advantage and used all her experience to throw Chloe off the consistently she had found during the first half of the game. By mixing the length of the jack up from end to end, Barbara clawed her way back to finish the game a tied game. Into an extra end we went, Barbara took the jack and played a lead bowl about 4 feet from the Jack, Chloe however managed to play a bowl inside that bowl which wasn’t beaten and therefor Chloe booked herself a place into the Ladies 2 bowl final winning 16-15.
Now we turn to the Men’s 2 bowl singles, from a field of 32 we managed to whittle away the talent until we reached the Semi Finals. The Men’s was a very similar story to the Ladies.
The first Semi Final saw Ian Mayne (Heaton Hall) take on Chris Catteral (Heaton Hall). Ian got off to a commanding start taking a 11-0 lead, Chris managed to get himself back into the game by stringing a few good ends together, however, wasn’t enough to shake Ian and he managed to close the game out with a 15-7 victory.
The second Semi Final started the story off with a very similar beginning, the two players involved were Alan Whitehouse (Heaton Hall) and Shayne Rimmer (Heaton Hall). Shayne took a very early 10-1 lead against Bowls Lancashire new comer Alan Whitehouse, however Alan is no stranger to a high profile game of bowls having represented Wales at international level. Alan kept his nerve to claw back shots end after end, we reached the last end with Alan actually leading 14-12.
Alan played his first bowl in a great position, just 9 inches short of the jack, however, Shayne played an amazing shot to hold 1 which gave himself a fighting chance, Alan played slightly through with his last bowl and gave Shayne a glint of light to tie the match, what looked a second shot with Shayne’s last bowl, all of a sudden started to bend and just finished 3 inches to far and only counted the one shot. Therefore Alan Whitehouse took the match 14-13 and will face Ian Mayne in the final on 8th August.
I would like to thank Southport Bowling Club and the members for their hospitality today, especially the ladies in the kitchen that looked after us very indeed.