BOWLS: Biggs & Co in National Hunt
6:00am Saturday 8th September 2012 in Sport
THE County Men’s National Championship finals and Bowls Wiltshire men, women and mixed competitions finals will be staged this weekend.
Local players feature in 14 of the 20 events being played over the two days of competition on the Upper and Lower greens at Devizes Bowls Club, with Westlecot and Wootton Bassett having the biggest representation.
Westlecot trio Mel Biggs, Graham Hatherall and Mike Jackson will be bidding for county titles in three national championship events, while Wootton Bassett’s Gary Morphet will feature in the triples championship final and one men’s competition final.
Biggs defends his men’s singles title against Chippenham Town’s Billy McCay, and teams up with Jackson in the pairs against Dave Godwin and Paul Macdonald, also of Chippenham Town.
Jackson, Graham Hatherall and Michael Richards face Wootton Bassett’s Chris Cheesley, Neil Smith and Gary Morphet in the triples final, while Ian Jefferies, Hatherall, Jackson and Biggs meet Graham Shadwell’s Spencer Moulton rink in the fours final.
Wootton Bassett’s Tom Walkley defends his under 25s singles crown against Alex Wickham.
A host of local players will compete in the mens, ladies and mixed competitions at Devizes, with the highlights being Gary Morphet’s clash with Keith Bailey in the men’s champions of champions final, and Linda Kingston against Margaret Annetts in the ladies’ event.
l WILTSHIRE Ladies have won the 2012 South West Counties League with an unbeaten record.
They won all of their six matches clinching the title with a 133-125 victory over Dorset and taking 16 points out of a possible 22.
It was touch and go whether their last league match at Gillingham (Dorset) would go ahead owing to a very wet green, but it did with Wiltshire winning on two rinks, drawing on two and losing on two.
However, the two big wins by Janet Willis and Delia Godwin’s rinks compensated for the two losses to seal the aggregate shots win.
Wiltshire finished their SWCL campaign on 103 points, with Somerset in second place on 82 while Dorset took third spot with 70 points.
Elsewhere, Box Ladies are through to the latter stages in the Women’s National Top Club Championship after winning their inter-county play-off match against Dorset at Sherborne.
They beat Poole Park 3-1 on disciplines - winning in the singles, triples and fours - and 82-69 on shots and now face Wigton of Cumbria in the quarter-finals at Leamington.
RESULTS Rink 1: Fizz Mace lost 12-27; Rink 2: Delia Godwin won 25-9; Rink 3: Janet Willis won 30-9; Rink 4: Alex Jacobs drew 25-25; Rink 5: Wendy Anderson lost 19-33; Rink 6: Marguerite Alexandra drew 22-22.
Score: Wiltshire beat Dorset 133-125 and by 16pts to 6.
