Maximum man John stars as hosts start with a win

4:00pm Wednesday 21st May 2008

BROADWAY suffered mixed fortunes in County and National competitions that were played last weekend winning comfortably in the Vernon Turner Cup against Hewell but losing by the narrowest of margins to Pershore in the National Two-Rink competition.

It had all started so well with a friendly game against Tewkesbury on the Saturday which was won by 22 shots.

Broadway won three out of the five rinks with John Oliver recording an emphatic 37-10 victory over Frank Lewis. This included a count of eight shots on one end when Lewis took his own woods out of the head to leave Broadway holding a maximum.

Dennis Hall also won well 24-15 as he took control of the game in the second half to score 16 shots against four dropped.

Son Richard was always in control against Ron Keicher and won 26-18.

After being 23-12 down, Andrew Walters came back to be only one shot behind going into the last end but dropped two shots to lose 27-24.

Mick Aubrey found Alan Turner in good form as he went down 28-11.

Rink scores: D Cresswell, B Clarke, E Shorthouse, R Hall 26-18. N Appleby, H Keyte, B Sturgess, D Hall 24-15. P Groom, M Barnes, T Morley, M Aubrey 11-28. D Leroy, G Paxton, R Ashby, A Walters 24-27. S Aldren, J Davies, D Bartlett, J Oliver 37-10.

Sunday morning saw Hewell arrive to play the Vernon Turner Cup and, at the halfway stage, it was Colin Cooper's rink who were keeping the home club's noses in front.

However, as Cooper pulled further away from David Wolfe, the other rinks moved up a gear and Broadway edged home in all four rinks to record a 96-60 victory.

Rink scores: S Aldren, D Cresswell, D Hall M Rainbow 20-16. M Aubrey, B Clarke, J Harris, R Hall 19-15. D Speake, J Dennis, D Bartlett, B Ford 26-18. D Turner, R Ashby, J Oliver, C Cooper 31-11.

On Monday evening, attention turned to the nationals at Pershore where, in the closest of matches, there was never more than a few shots between the two sides with Dave Bartlett shading Mike Lewis while Derek Palfrey held the upper hand over Mark Rainbow.

Bartlett's rink finished first and won by three shots but Rainbow went to bowl his last wood two down on the game and four down on the head.

However, a brilliant shot saw him claim second shot to take the game into an extra end to be played by Bartlett's rink.

Excellent woods from the front ends in the gathering gloom left Broadway holding shot but then disaster struck as Harry Keyte's near perfect wood just clipped a Pershore bowl to possibly clip it in for shot.

It was a measure! Two valiant woods from Bartlett couldn't change the head and Mike Lewis bowled his last wood not knowing whether he had the shot or not. It went to a measure with the calipers and Pershore won it by a millimetre.

Concorde Ladies League

Evesham 76, Broadway 78: J Hunt, M Black, E Upton 7, B Mansion, Y Hopkins, J Parfitt 22. L Brown, P Hodge, M Shephard 9, D Gleghorn, B Cresswell, S Davies 23. C McSweeney, M Smith, J Hemms 12, L Ashby, S Warren, D Jackson 20. H Quartermain, W Jeffries, D Bawn 28, J Barnes, T Emms, V Hall 13.

Vale Mixed Triples League

Results: Weston-sub-Edge 42 (2), Bredon 57 (8); Pershore 48 (3), Broadway 51 (7); Littleton Gold 41 (2), Aston Somerville Blue 58 (8); Evesham 59 (8), Inkberrow 38 (2); Aston Red 39 (2), Littleton Blue 49 (8).

Standings: Evesham P 3, Pts24; Littleton Blue 3, 23; Pershore 3, 21; Aston Blue 3, 17; Broadway 3, 17; Aston Red 3, 12; Bredon 3, 10; Inkberrow 3, 7; Littleton Gold 3, 7.

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