Spalding Indoor Bowls Club had mixed emotions over the weekend as they played South Shields Vipers in the quarter-finals of both the Denny Cup and mixed Top Club at York and District Indoor Bowls Club.
On Saturday, the men contested the Denny Cup inter-club knockout competition.
South Shields Vipers were the beaten finalists in 2019 therefore, Spalding knew they were in for a battle.
The atmosphere was electric and played in an excellent spirit by both teams.
Spalding started the stronger and had opened up a 30-shot lead by the half way mark.
However, South Shields Vipers showed their fighting spirit as they closed the gap to within four shots as two rinks were playing their last end and one rink had two to play.
The rinks skipped by Jordan Philpott and Tristan Morton scored an important treble and double respectively to put the team nine shots in front with one rink playing their last two ends.
Mathew Orrey and his rink dropped a single on their penultimate end which meant that South Shields Vipers needed to score a rare full house of eight shots to take the match into an extra end.
Spalding scored a single to win the match by nine shots (89-80) and book their place in the semi-final for the first time in recent years and believed to be only the second time in the club’s history.
Everyone played their part in an impressive victory but the main damage was done by the rink skipped by Philpott, with Kevin Ekins, Simon Lilley and Martin Spencer who beat South Shields Vipers star, David Bolt, 25-17.
Spalding’s semi-final opponents will be Wey Valley, from Surrey, on Saturday, February 12 at a neutral green yet to be agreed.
Rink scores: Kevin Ekins, Simon Lilley, Martin Spencer and Jordan Philpott – won 25-17; Stephen Harris, Martin Simpson, Graham Smith and Mathew Orrey – won 17-16; Brian Martin, Mike Robertson, Ean Morton and Tristan Morton – won 22-21; Harry Mycock, Lewis Parnell, Andy Dunham and Dominic McVittie – lost 25-26.
- On Sunday, Spalding’s mixed top club team attempted to continue the defence of their title – but fell short on this occasion.
Spalding recorded the first points of the match as Chelsea Tomlin and Stephen Harris won both the ladies’ and men’s singles 21-15 and 21-14 respectively.
This meant that Spalding needed to win only one of the other disciplines (pairs, triples and fours) and win the overall aggregate.
However, South Shields Vipers were far too strong as they won the remaining disciplines and the match 12-4 on points without the aggregate even needing to come in to play.
South Shields Vipers will now play Egham in the semi-final.
Rink Scores: Ladies’ singles – Chelsea Tomlin – won 21-15; Men’s singles – Stephen Harris – won 21-14; Pairs – Louise Harris and Jordan Philpott – lost 11-25; Triples – Andy Dunham, Annie Dunham and Martin Spencer – lost 11-16; Fours – Jean Patterson, Karen Martin, Graham Smith and Mathew Orrey – lost 16-26.
- On Thursday, Spalding’s ladies played their fourth Trudy Bates match of the season away at Skegness.
Three out of the four rinks were closely contested – but two of them missed out on the last end.
The big push came from the rink skipped by Barbara Hurst, who scored 11 shots on the last five ends.
Top winning rink was skipped by Julie Hicks, with Carole Nunney, Sheila Chamberlain and Jenny Horner, who returned an impressive 29-10 scorecard ensuring that the aggregate was never in doubt.
Spalding won the match 10-4 on points and the overall aggregate 89-65. The next match will be against Boston today (Thursday):
Rink scores: Carole Nunney, Sheila Chamberlain, Jenny Horner and Julie Hicks – won 29-10; Jean Patterson, Petrine Ault, Maggie Wheatley and Barbara Hurst – won 25-16; Freda Lyon, Jan Sinclair, Sandra Hammond and Maisie Belding – lost 17-18; Ann Newbury, Judy Jackson, Trish Stafford and Betty Deaton – lost 18-21.
