South Park Bowls Club

The team had a good night of success away at Belmont last night in the Durham League Handicap Knock-Out.
We held a 27-26 lead before the start of play and then had 2 out of 4 rinks win to take us through to the 2nd round where we will face 1st Division outfit EverReady Craghead. This will be a very difficult fixture but with a 26 shot start it will be a good opportunity to again progress.

Another 5-0 drubbing this time at the hands of Shildon Town has surely doomed South Park to the District Leagues Division 2 even at this early stage of the season. Again one man down but one highlight was the debut from Paul Kelly.

Competitions this week have seen Keith Burton beat Barry Hopkins Jnr in the 4 wood EBA Singles and both of them losing in the pairs to the Northams. Andy Bell, Scott and Bill Morland were unlucky in the triples losing to Andy Kirtland by 3 shots at Stockton despite being the better team on the night. Scott and Bill were then beaten in the pairs as they couldn’t make a good start pay against Liam Macey and Craig Northam.
Despite these results we wish all our district members luck in the county stages of these competitions.

In the Durham League competitions Scott, Bill and Sandra Hopkins won their first game in the Hospital Cup against Peter Wilkinson rink.

We now look forward to our home matches tonight against Whessoe and tomorrow afternoon against Peterlee. Then Monday night see our debut in the Millenium Cup away at Belmont where a win would see us with a 25 shot advantage againt EverREady Craghead in Round 2. Lets get stuck in!!

We made progress in the EBA Fours and Triples last night seeing both teams into the District Finals.

Bill, Scott Morland and Andy Bell scraped by on an extra end despite losing most of the game beating Andrew Parnell, Bob Oliver and Eric Fordy from Stockton BC.

Barry Hopkins Snr & Jnr, Ken Wood and KEith Burton beat Paul Frasers Hundens rink on the last end in the Fours.

Tonight we face a tricky tie away to Spennymoor B, a bottom of the table clash, we are hoping for a shock win with perfect performances from our newcomers Carlos Bozeate and Jonathan Handley.

Its been a mixed start to the season, after a 4-0 win in the Works League over the Rolling Mills we couldn’t have got off to a better start, then 2 wins and a loss in the Durham and District League has seen us start fairly well. Then disaster has struck on a Thursday night with issues fielding a full team resulting in 3 defetas 5-0, 5-0 and 4-1 with another tough game at Spennymoor this week.

The competitions are progessing well and will keep you updated with successes over the next few weeks.

With a new season ahead we can’t wait to start showing the RA the way to go!!

We have meetings for the District and Durham League this week and hopefully finally the Works League.

As the news unfolds we will give you all an update, this weekend the site will be back and regular updated with exciting news.

After a hard winter we have lost the following members and need to rebuild, the likleyhood of 2 teams in the Works League is nowing looking bleak.

Richard Copeland
Alaina Chesney
Martin Snelling

All key players, but never mind we look forward to an exciting new season where the 2 Hopkins have been nominated for County along with Keith Burton and we have a new league to play for in Durham.

Sadly despite our ongoing methods of increasing of the membership and forming new teams we are finding this year difficult.

We have lost Martin Snelling which is a huge loss with many more rumoured to be leaving. This is a shame as we look to build a strong saturday afternoon team. This also means we may have to reconsider that we may not be able to enter 2 treams into the works league this year.

As usual South Park are making the headlines and are unable to win anything without causing some aggro along the way.
Our South Park rink of Sandra, Barry Hopkins and Keith Burton took the cup in the indoor triples league despite Cummins A attempting to illegaly approach the bowls club for 2 points.

Fortunately for us this failed and the championship was ours for the 3rd time.

The finishing table is below for the Parkside Ladies. Next year as South Park Ladies they are sure to do better with a more stable and happier team.

Lodge Ladies 37.5
Barnard Castle 34.5
Rothmans 32
Woodlands 25
Richmond 18
Middleton St George 14
Parkside Ladies 7

We look forward to having them as a part of our club and am sure they will go from strength to strength.

Jonathan the Hand-ley gave Carl Bozeate a gentle stuffing in last nights grudge match at South Park. Despite Carl going in as favourite the bookies lost out with big odds as Jonathan turned on the style.

Spectators gathered from allover the place in this tense match, if only the same form could be produced on his unallocated cash!