The Vics “C” team with an impressive array of eight winners defeated second in the table, Pensby Hoy/Recs “B”, by 58 shots at West Kirby yesterday afternoon to claim the valuable aggregate point. Once again the lightly used Ken Bidwell starred with his 4th single figure victory in 4 outings, 21-06. Ken has scored 84 points against only 20 in his 4 games. There were three 21-12 winners in Bill Powell, Stan Evans and John Dodd. Both C.K.Pau and Ernie Peers won 21-13 with Bill Spraggett winning 21-14. That “grand old man from the North” Andy Fergus also chipped in with a tight 21-18 and with Bill Tottey and John Davies only conceding 10 shots between them the Vics were well worth their comfortable victory. Things look good at the top of the table for Lenny Sherbrooke’s team and provided everybody is available during the second half of the season, the League title is not beyond them.
The afternoon “B” team lost by 29 shots yesterday afternoon at Burtons to concede the aggregate point by the close margin of only 4 shots. Lawrie Blackburn led way for the four Vics winners with a good 21-15 and with stand in skipper Derek Thomas 21-18, C.K.Pau 21-19 and Harry Preston 21-20 all winning tight games the Vics could not do quite enough to secure the much needed aggregate point. Tony Ryding, Bill Spraggett and Ian Cameron were all involved in really close tussles but Burtons with six winners proved just too strong on the day.
Karl “Crusher” Sherbrooke gave a devastating performance tonight with a quickfire 21-04 win, in a much improved overall team display by the Vics Birkenhead League side, with the Vics running out 52 shot winners away at Upton Victory Hall. Robby Franklin 21-06, Tony Vyskocil 21-07 and a great 21-08 by Colin Saville ( showing his expected form) all had easy single figure victories. Billy Atkinson 21-12 also had a comfortable win, with closer victories for George Morgan, Mally Johnson and skipper Ian Sherbrooke, the Vics had eight winning blocks in a stunning away performance. Things looked bleak for Peter Dodd after his disaster on Monday when he quickly went 0-5 to Tony Kavanagh but he managed a very respectable 19-21 at the end of the game. With Neil Sherbrooke also a close loser at 20-21, the overall team performance was a great improvement on recent outings. Mike Skipworth and Bernie Owen both well into double figures also contributed their share of the workload. Things are looking up for the Vics before Wednesday’s crucial cup semi final completion against Albany.