Chelmsford BC clip Falcon's wings

7:33am Friday 9th May 2008

CHELMSFORD Bowling Club met local rivals Falcon BC in the Preliminary round of the National Top Club competition at Tower Gardens.

This event concerns five disciplines, with the winners requiring to win three of them to progress to the next round.

Chelmsford's Graham Robson was matched against singles expert Joe Stamper and whilst Robson made a good start, Stamper soon turned on the pressure to finish the winner, 21-9.

In the "Two Bowl" singles Chelmsford's rising star Mike Eldridge was pitched against the experienced Ian Barker and in a tight tussle, Eldridge came out on top winning 14-12.

John Caton and Phil Kyffin represented Chelmsford in the Pairs and they played the experienced Alf Allen and Mark Morhall.

Allen and Morhall had an excellent start to pile up the shots but Caton and Kyffin stuck to their task and pulled matters back to finish six shots adrift 14-20.

In the Triples event, Chelmsford fielded Tony Skingley, Terry Little and skip Fred Dowding, who had a tight game against Peter Harris, Barrie Crowe and Ian Muir, with Dowding's triple coming out on top to win 19-16.

The final encounter was between the Chelmsford four of Roger Jones, Tony Collings, Steve Edwards and skip Stan Slater against Falcon's John Drewe, John Weatherley, Tom Anderson and skip Les Lewis. Chelmsford won this one 22-17, which gave them a 3-2 discipline win to progress to the next round against Southminster BC, to be played by May 22.

President Ray Walker said: "To win against the best that the Falcon can put out is always a difficult task. Chelmsford champion Ray Walker met Writtle's champion, Derek Cook, in the Preliminary Round of the National Champion of Champion's Singles. Cook made a good start being 10-1 up after just five ends. Walker battled back but could never catch his opponent who won 21-10 to set up a next round match against the current English National Singles Champion Andy Squire of Maldon BC."

l The rink details for these two matches were: Against RHP - Sue Jones 28 Ken Wade 8, Ray Keeble 17 Pam Wager 24, Derek Flack 23 David Evans 18, Ken Allen 30 Alf Smith 17, Maureen Parris 13 Reg Dixon 27, Ray Mitchell 20 John Davies 17. Chelmsford 131 RHP 111. Against ECBA Group 9 - Robert Walker 15 M Blackman 22, Terry Little 17 D Logie 15, Fred Dowding 13 R Legg 37, Stan Slater 12 C Whitear 20, Steve Edwards 16 P Whyir 19, Tony Skingley 18 R Watts 14. Chelmsford 91 ECBA Group 9 117.

l In other matches, Chelmsford BC opened up their new friendly fixture programme with a six-rink mixed friendly match against near neighbours RHP.

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