West Kirby Victoria’s Robby Hall beat club mate Dave Gilmore 31-27 in an excellent final after a dramatic day’s bowling in the first Tony Vyskocil 31 Up Memorial Trophy Competition held at Manor Road this afternoon. Robby bowled consistently well all afternoon and came through 2 titanic struggles against Geoff Lynch 31-30 in the Quarter Finals and then Mark Lynch 31-29 in the semi finals before another hard match in the Final against Dave Gilmore. Robby had certainly proved not only his great ability but also his great fitness to come through these tough matches to claim the Trophy. There was another amazing Quarter Final match that saw Mark Lynch finally overcome his Queens Royal team mate Craig Saville 31-30 in a superb game. Dave had accounted for Alan Bainbridge and Ian Hazlehurst in his Quarter and Semi Final matches to have a more comfortable entry into the Final. The real reason behind the event however was to commemorate the tragic passing of Tony Vyskocil last year and Tony’s parents donated a magnificent Trophy to be played for Annually by the District’s bowlers. Tony’s mother presented the Trophy to Robby Hall at an emotional presentation ceremony witnessed by Tony’s partner and their son, Roy, as well as Tony’s dad.
The scene at The Vics green minutes after the Birkenhead League Match v Oxton had to be called off due to another tropical thunderstorm.
Anthony Thompson proved too strong for his opponents in a terrific night’s bowling, that saw him win the Wallasey Individual Merit Title at Manor Road last night with a fine 21-13 victory in the Final against West Kirby Victoria team mate John Devlin. “Buzz” provided what might have been described as the best win of the night in his quarter final match against the remarkably consistent Mark Lynch, when after taking an early 12-04 lead and being pulled back by Mark to 17-17, he managed to take 4 of the last 5 points to run out an excellent 21-18 winner. John Devlin had a topsy turvey 21-20 win over Mike Nelson in his quarter final match when after building a big early lead he found himself 19-20 down only to pull out 2 singles at the end to send Mike out, with Mike putting his last wood through the narrowest of gaps between John’s wood and the jack to unluckily lose out. The other 2 quarter final matches saw Dave Gilmore defeat John Lloyd 21-08 and Matty Gilmore defeat Geoff Lynch 21-11. The semi finals were both excellent matches with Anthony Thompson coming back from an early 03-06 deficit against Dave Gilmore to eventually go 09-06 up and keep ahead right through to the end and a fine 21-17 victory. John Devlin caused a surprise in his semi final against Matty Gilmore when after being 03-09 down he went 11-09 up and 17-11 up before running out a deserved 21-15 winner after proving almost impassable on a short mark across the green in front of the new Manor Road extension. The final saw Anthony Thompson stride into an early 08-01 lead before being pegged back to 08-09 by John but a run of 10 shots up and down the centre of the green saw Anthony take a 19-09 lead before John managed a run of 4 more to lie at 13-19, Anthony then took the 2 singles required to put his name on the famous old trophy for the first time.
The Wallasey Association and Vics Secretary, Peter Dodd, presents the Wallasey Individual Merit Trophy to Anthony Thompson.
Brian Buck’s afternoon “C” team did the Vics proud this week with a rare afternoon West Kirby away win. With both the “A” and “B” teams struggling for away wins the Vics “C” showed how it is done with a 16 shot win at Higher Tranmere “C”. Bill Tottey strolled through a magnificent 21-04 win that took him to the top of the “C” team averages and Stan Ridgway rolled back the years with an impressive 21-11 victory. Reg Armitage warmed up for his crack at the “Ben Webster” competition with a fine 21-15 win and Skipper Brian Buck impressed with a good 21-17 winning card. John Brandon continued his improvement this year with another 21-17 victory and Bernie Davies completed the Vics winners with a difficult 21-19 win. Eddie Dodd 18-21 and Eric Neal 19-21 did well before narrowly losing out at the end and a delighted Brian Buck will be hoping for a big home victory next week in the return match.
The afternoon “B” teams hopes of challenging for promotion were dealt a severe blow on Wednesday when they lost 181-184 away at Hoylake Marine after beating the same side by a massive 84 shots at home last week. In the home leg last week the Vics had 8 winners with both Keith Etches and Brian Ibbotson storming to 21-03 victories, with Ernie Peers 21-04 and Dave Bosworth 21-07 not far behind them. Bill Purcell 21-12, Don Ibbotson 21-14 and C.K.Pau 21-15 all had comfortable victories with Ian Cameron 21-16 completing the Vics winners with a 21-16 winning display. Derek Thomas would have been rubbing his hands at the thought of a second successive away win at Hoylake on Wednesday against the bottom team in the league but chickens should never be counted too early as Hoylake shared the victories 5 each on the day and after the count up came out 3 shot winners. A rare appearance this season from Peter Walker, saw him regain his old form with a resounding 21-08 victory on his former green at Hoylake. C.K.Pau once again proved his worth with a good 21-15 win and Dave Bosworth pulled off a close fought 21-18 victory. Brian Ibbotson won another close game 21-19 which was followed by the remarkably consistent Keith Etches winning his 11th game from 12 by the same 21-19 score. Unfortunately for the Vics that was it as regards winners and Don Ibbotson’s 19-21 score was not enough to gather enough points for the Vics to win the match on the day. This was a disappointing result for Derek Thomas and his team after the huge win at West Kirby but it is away from home that the Vics need to improve and changes to the line up seem likely in the next few weeks.
The afternoon “A” team’s double header of league games with Heswall RBL over the last fortnight saw the aggregate points shared with both teams winning their respective home matches by 6 shots. This turned out to be something of a minor miracle for the Vics as, with only 4 winners in each match against Heswall’s 6, the Vics trailed badly in individual victories. In the away leg at Heswall last Wednesday week Peter Dodd 21-13, Elwyn Williams 21-14, Robby Franklin 21-16 and Billy Atkinson 21-20 were the Vics winners on an excellent Heswall green. Mally Johnson and Bernie Owen both provided 19-21 scorecards and Dick Peake lost out 20-21 to keep the Vics in with an excellent chance of gaining the aggregate point at home. This was not to be however as a changed Heswall side took the game to the Vics straightaway with 5 winners from the first 8 blocks on a heavy Vics green yesterday. Once again Elwyn Williams 21-08, Billy Atkinson 21-15 and Peter Dodd 21-19 won their games with Alan Hughes 21-11 the only other Vics winner. Both Elwyn and Alan adapted to the heavy Vics green better than most and Skipper Billy Atkinson came up trumps at the end when needed in a pulsating finish. Peter Dodd came from 01-08 down to eventually wear down his opponent and Kenny Palin managed to garner enough shots in an 18-21 defeat at number 10 to ensure victory for the Vics on the day and that the aggregate points were shared between two well matched sides at the end.
The top two Wallasey Association Teams at the moment, West Kirby Victoria and Queens Royal, served up a treat for a big crowd at Manor Road tonight, when the Harold Jones Cup Final finished with both sides on 218 after a terrific match played in an excellent sporting spirit by both sides. On the superb Manor Road green Anthony Thompson 21-16 and Dave Gilmore 21-20 put West Kirby into an early lead but this was pulled back by Mark Lynch winning 21-15 for Queens Royal. Steve Nugent came off with a 21-15 winning scorecard for West Kirby to leave the scores level at 78 each after 4 blocks (Queens Royal receiving a 6 shot start from the handicappers). Queens Royal then stormed into a 27 shot lead after having 3 winning cards in the middle four with Craig Saville and Eddie Dutton giving superb displays with 21-10 and 21-06 wins respectively. Karl Sherbrooke pulled 1 shot back for West Kirby with a narrow 21-20 win but this was undone when Geoff Lynch came off with a 21-19 win for Royal after finishing with 3 two’s from 15-19 down. The score after 8 blocks being 161-134 in favour of Queens Royal meant that West Kirby needed a big winner in the back four and once again it was Matt Gilmore who came up trumps with a quick fire 21-07 success followed by the Fitzpatrick brothers, Jamie and Robby, both winning 21-16 to leave West Kirby in the driving seat with Robby Hall leading 17-05 in his match with Frank O’Neill but Frank staged a terrific comeback to eventually only lose out 18-21 and leave the final scores 218-218 after some wonderful bowling that was a credit to both sides. The likely replay date is Saturday August 4th but this will be confirmed as soon as arrangements have been made.
There is a new name engraved on the Wirral & District Crown Green Bowling Association Hurrell Cup.
West Kirby Victoria’s Craig Bourbonneux came through a quality field at Cammell Laird to defeat Gladstone’s Nigel Hughes 21-12 in the final.
He beat Bob Edwards (Harrison Park) 21-18 in his quarter-final tie and reached the final at the expense of his mate and fellow Vics bowler, John Lloyd, 21-17.
Congratulations on a magnificent performance, Craig.
Craig Bourbonneux
The Vics Birkenhead League side gave League leaders Higher Tranmere a shock on Friday night, when with five out of the first six blocks going to the Vics, the visitors were on the wrack and a home win looked likely. Higher Tranmere did however show the mettle of probable League Champions by taking the last six blocks to complete a quickfire double victory over the Vics after Friday’s match at Tranmere also went their way. Neil Sherbrooke, as classy as the racehorse he is knicknamed after, the magnificent “Shergar”, continued his excellent Birkenhead League form with his 13th win from 14 outings with a comprehensive 21-10 victory. “Dapper” Devlin was not far behind with a comfortable 21-12 win that saw John back to near his best form again. Robby Franklin and Billy Atkinson both had fine 21-15 wins and Karl Sherbrooke completed the Vics winners list with a hard fought 21-18 winning card. John Lloyd was the best of the rest for the Vics, just losing out 17-21 in the end and special mention must go to Eddie Dodd for turning out against such powerful opposition after playing regular 5th Division afternoon bowls only this season. A near miss for the Vics but it is difficult playing against Higher Tranmere with a full team and with such a small squad the Vics cannot afford players missing against opponents of this calibre. Next up is an away fixture against Oxton Conservatives on Friday 13th July.
The Vics afternoon “C” team Skipper, Brian Buck, proved the old adage wrong yesterday by not “passing the buck” but instead he “grabbed the bull by the horns” to lead his team to a narrow 1 shot win against Thingwall “B” at West KIrby. With only four home winners the Vics struggled to hold a strong Thingwall side despite Reg Armitage and Arthur Fagan both having crucial and excellent 21-09 wins in the first six blocks. With Eddie Dodd winning 21-16 and Bill Tottey battling to a good 21-18 victory all seemed rosy for the Vics but five losing cards saw Brian Buck on the green at number 10 needing to score 20 points to ensure the Vics came away with a win. When Brian found himself 11-18 down things looked bleak but “cometh the hour cometh the man”, even if he is an Evertonian and despite being 18-20 down Brian fought back to 20 across only to lose the next end but having done enough to see his side through to that crucial one shot victory.