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Federation - Latest News SECOND VICTORY PUTS FURNESS TOP In the Hotter Comfort Concepts sponsored Federation of Crown Green Bowls Division 3 Championship match, the Furness Crown Green Association Senior bowling team produced a terrific team performance, to win a close fought match with Middleton 17-15 and go top of the division. The Mancunians were the top placed side relegated from division 2 last year and encompass the crown green bowling areas of Middleton, Rochdale and Oldham. At the Red River Club in Barrow, Furness began the home leg well, winning three of the opening four games. Martin Barrow held leads of 17-9 and 20-14 before finally winning 21-18. Graham Rigg used his green knowledge, racing away from 7-7 to record a fine 21-10 success. Homester Dave Shaw, playing in his first ever match for Furness, found himself under the cosh at 6-0 and 11-15 adrift of his opponent, but ended the game strongly to come home a 21-17 winner. Rod Lewis found visiting player John Iron in devastating form and despite not bowling badly, the Glaxo player went down 11-21. Keith Alexander led 15-6, before six singles from his opponent closed the gap to 15-12, then the Dalton man recaptured his earlier form to run out a 21-16 winner and put Furness 4-1 ahead. Richard Allen extended this lead to 5-1 with a resounding 21-1 score line. The Furness youth player bowled an excellent length, something that the opposition player failed to achieve. Richard’s feat equals the 21-1 record score by another ex youth player Steven Howarth in 2004 against Wallasey. Another player moving up from the youth team was 16 year old debutant Liam Howard. The youngster, playing Middleton’s normal No 1 bowler soon found himself 7-0 and 12-3 down. The West Mount bowler then showed great fighting spirit to take a 15-14 lead, before finally going down 18-21. Another debutant for the home side was Barrow Park player Paul Bennett. The game was nip and tuck in the early stages before Bennett found himself 11-16 behind. He managed to close the gap to 19-20 before his opponent found the winning wood. In the next two matches both home bowlers held commanding leads, but finished up losing. Mark Edmondson led 10-1 and 14-9, but lost 16-21. John Harris was 16-9 in front, before his opponent produced some excellent corner bowling to win 21-18. After being 5-1 up, Furness found themselves 6-5 behind when Roger Barrow got beat 9-21. Stan Halesworth levelled things up with a fine 21-16 win against visiting manager Mick Connolly. This was Stan The Man's first match since playing in the opening two matches of the 1993 season, the inaugural year for the Furness team. This meant Furness had drawn the home leg 6 games all, but won the aggregate 217-204, for a hard-fought 8-6 home victory. The Furness away squad again produced a magnificent match-winning performance on a big and heavy green at the Prestwich bowling club. They began brightly with John Reilly going 14-5 up against home bowler Chris Harris. Reilly then had further leads of 18-12 and 20-16 before Harris closed the gap to 20-19, when the Alfred bowler found the vital winning wood. Colin Evans found the green to his liking and was always in command of his game, building up a 15-5 lead before winning 21-10. Martin Lavender recovered from 11-17 down to lead 20-18, but was unable to check out and lost by the narrowest of margins. Doug Millburn was level at 13-13 when his opponent ran out on him to level the leg at 2 apiece. James Clarke produced a strong second half performance to his game, winning 21-13 after being 11-12 down. Andy Boardman was level at 10-10, when some excellent bowling along a famed edge of the green killed him off at 12-21. Shaun Taylor looked home and dry at 20-8, then found his lead reduced to 20-18 before obtaining his vital winning single. Paul Millburn struggled to make an impact going down 12-21, while Peter Roberts was in the game at 10-11, before his man ran out on him. Steve Fullard put up a tremendous showing against the 2005 Waterloo beaten semi finalist Matt O’Neal. Fullard led 5-0, 10-4 and 17-11 before O’Neal got the better of him to win 21-18. Steve Oldfield produced his normal scintillating Furness performance to beat the very highly rated Mark Gibbons 21-12. Last man on the green for Furness was Jeff Hinde and although he lost 19-21, it turned out to be Hinde’s 19 chalks that gave Furness an overall 3 chalk aggregate margin. Furness lost the away leg 5-7 on games and the aggregate 209-219, giving the Middleton team a 9-5 home leg win. Furness however, won the overall aggregate 426-423 to collect an extra 4 points and a match score of 17-15.
Results of the home leg played at
the Red River were: -
John Reilly 21 Chris Harris 19 After two rounds of matches the Federation of Crown Green Bowls Division 3 table reads:
Furness played 2 – 39 points The next Furness match is on Sunday 15th July, against North Yorkshire. Furness would like to thank the Red River Bowling Club for the use of their green, Rob Jones for his help on the day, Ray Tester for a fine refereeing performance and the spectators who encouraged the teams.
OPENING DAY VICTORY FOR FURNESS In the Rigby Taylor sponsored Federation of Crown Green Bowls Division 3 Championship match, the Furness Crown Green Association Senior bowling team played their first match of the season against Cannock last Sunday. Cannock finished champions of division 4 last season winning all 4 of their matches. The Furness team turned in a solid performance in the home leg, played on a well prepared BAE Systems green at Hawcoat lane. The home team made an excellent start with BAE Systems bowler Tonie Moxham racing into an 11-1 lead before winning comfortably, 21-8. Martin Barrow then ran out from 14-13, before Rod Lewis produced some immaculate length bowling to win 21-5. In the last of the first four matches, young Jamie Clarke led 19-16 and 20-18 before losing 20-21 to give the visitors their first point. In the middle four, Billy Thompson led 13-7, was then pegged back to 15-14, before recapturing his earlier form to win 21-15. Keith Alexander boosted the Furness sides aggregate chances with a terrific 21-3 success. Billy Harding making his Furness debut, was always in control of his opponent winning 21-9. Askam player Kenny Knowles became the second home loser. It was a nip and tuck affair up to 14-15, before the Cannock player found some excellent woods to win 21-15. Mark Edmondson with some steady bowling won 21-11, running out from 9-11 down to put Furness 7-2 in front. John Harris found himself 15-19 and 18-20 down, before playing his get out of jail card to win 21-20. Brian Beard also won 21-20 after leading 18-15 and 20-17. Last man Roger Barrow seemed to be coasting to victory leading 15-4, but his opponent had other ideas, recovering to 13-15, before Roger reestablished his earlier form to win 21-15. Furness won 10-2 on games and collected a further 2 points winning the aggregate 245-161.
Results of the home
leg played at BAE Systems were: - The Furness away team showed what a good unit they are, sharing the games on a tricky Windmill Inn green at Gentleshaw, Rugeley in Staffordshire. Furness did not start well losing the first two games off the green. Shaun Taylor found his opponent in awesome form and only scored 3. Colin Evans at top man played against home bowler Lee Cavill, who used his green knowledge well to win 21-9. Furness got off the mark through Graham Rigg, who was always in command of his game winning 21-16. Steve Oldfield and Cannock player Mike Ledwidge produced possibly the best game of the day, with Oldfield coming back from 12-19 down before losing 18-21. Furness players Andy Boardman, Kevin Dyer and Peter Roberts all lost 12-21, with Dyer recovering from 7-13 down to 12-13 before his opponent ran out. Dougie Millburn stopped the rot, making a remarkable come back from 7-14 down to win 21-16. Despite being 2-6 down, the Furness players rallied round to offer terrific support to their last four on the green and they responded in fine style, with all four winning. Paul Millburn came back from being 7-14 behind to win 21-20, Steve Fullard also overturned a 9-15 deficit to record a 21-18 success, Martin Lavender stormed into what appeared to be a commanding 16-2 lead, before his opponent levelled at 19 all, Martin then used his vast years of experience to finally win by the narrowest of margins. Jeff Hinde's match was then the last game on the green, in typically relaxed style Jeff came from 7-9 behind to lead 15-9 before finishing off the match and another successful away day for the Furness team with a 21-16 victory. Results of the away leg played at the Windmill Inn, Gentleshaw were: -
Colin Evans 9 Lee Cavill 21 Furness drew the away leg 6-6 on games, but lost the aggregate 192 – 232. They also won the overall aggregate 437 – 393 to give them an excellent 22 - 10 overall victory.
In the other match played in the division, Middleton who Furness next meet
on the 20th May, lost to North Yorkshire 10-22. Sunday 20th May Sunday 15th July Sunday 19th August
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