Hove Edge Bowling Club rolled out their ever popular Winter League for the 2019/2020 season this week in fine but chilly weather.
Defending Shield Champions Nomads, again led by Phil Holroyd who was “on the bench” this week as James Senior, John Armitage, Mark McGorlick and Les Holmes made up the team to play Cleckheaton Sports (Ian Poutney, Paul Fincher, Richard Cleghorn and new signing Les Mitchell who previously played for Spen). In a closely fought match, with two winners each the defending champs just came out on top 15-13. McGorlick and Senior were victorious for Nomads and Poutney and Mitchell, winning on debut, replying for Sports.
Newly promoted Sowerby West End (Lorraine Hirst, Shirley Dillingham, Geoff Price and Pat Skene) were paired with Lindley Libs (Daniel Bousfield, Richard Dickinson, Mark Sykes and Pete Hopkinson). The Libs took the honours 17-11 although Dillingham and Hirst both won for West End, Dickinson and Bousfield replied for Libs but Sykes with 20 and Hopkinson with 17 made the difference as SWE losers were both in single figures.
Hanging Heaton (Graham Hirst, David Armitage, Steve Wainwright and Dean Scarth) took on Crosshills (Barry McCourt, Rod Bastow, Ken Brenkley and Dave Rankin) who provided three of the four winners in their 19-12 victory. Scarth just getting the better of Rankin 21-19 in a welcome return for the Batley side.
Clayton (Alan Peel, Hedley Kettlewell, Ian Johnson and Paul Gill) and Mixtures (Trevor Heley, Andy Balmforth, Roger Stopford and Derek Hewitt) concluded the first weeks Shield program and it was the Mixtures with three winners and a twenty loser that took the spoils 19-11. Kettlewell the only winner for Clayton.
In the Plate relegated Mirfield Old Bank (Graham Sheard, Terry Varney, Walt Morgan and Mel Stradling) started with a tough game as they were drawn against Bronte’s (David Hemsley, Fred Rothwell, Geoff Hughes and Derek Williamson) who just missed out on promotion last season. In a close-run thing, there were two winners each, Varney and Stradling for Old Bank and Hughes and Hemsley for Bronte’s in the 15-12 result.
Asa Briggs (Steve McGrevy, Trevor Kendall, Peter Wrightson and Bert Haigh) struggled against Lindley B C (Mick Thornton, Linda Gledhill, Tony Lockwood and Steve Haigh) who came out all guns blazing and provided all four winners in their 20-8 victory.
Greetland (George Simpson, Pete Lea, Gordon Bradford and Ken Fleming) another of the relegated teams looking for a flying start to the season as they took on Rastrick (Graham Hall, Peter Hardcastle, Alan Standing and Terry Leach). Greetland were not disappointed as they had all four winners for maximum points, Rastrick finishing with six.
The final match of the day was Pellon (Robert Walker, Mark Bolton, Paul Firth and David Gowing) against Cleckheaton Sports 2 (Tony Quinn, David Griffiths, Janet Inness and Elaine Binns) and this was the closest game. Walker and Firth were successful for Pellon and Griffiths and Binns responded for Sports and losers were all of similar scores and the game finished 14-14.