There was a good turnout last Sunday of 18 bowlers to fight it out for the honour of being the Club’s singles champion for 2023, with a good mix of experienced players right through to beginners and one of the club’s youngest players (Jenson Clare) also bravely taking part. Players were divided up into 4 groups with the winners or each group going through to the semi finals. They had to play both on the artificial and the grass greens to ensure that it was totally fair.

Group A saw Aaron Backhouse qualifying from the group of 4. Beginner Sue Graham fought valiantly but still got the wooden spoon with Mike Sylvester and Lorraine Birchall both playing well. Group B was another 4 person group and favourite Dave Hulse came through as expected, with beginner Kaz McAvoy doing well to come second, Leanne Clare and Pauline Silvester completed the last 2 places.

Group C was rightly called the ‘Group of Death’ with former winner Ian Mayne and top Federation Bowler Mike ‘Faganator’ Fagan. both in there, as well as the bookies outside chance Dean Simmonds and Phil Birchall. It was always going to be an uphill struggle for beginner, Marilyn Ramsden. Despite Ian beating Mike in their match, Dean produced a superb performance to beat Ian. With Mike racking up bigger wins in his other games he went through with a better points score, Dean not finishing far behind Ian. Finally in Group D the main challenger to Ian Gill was Dave Roper, who just lost out in a tight game to Ian, and finished second in the Group. Keith Knaggs and John Clare filled the 3rd and 4th spots respectively. Young Jenson Clare fought well but still came last in the group, however he is one to watch out for in the future.

The semi finals were drawn out and Mike and Aaron were pitted together. It was a tight game which came down to the final end but Mike just took it 8-7. In the other semi Ian took on Dave, and Dave just couldn’t recover from being down after the first 6 ends on the artificial. It finished 12-7 to Ian

So to the final and Mike just couldn’t reproduce his form from the semi final and the title was Ian’s for the second year in a row with an 11-1 triumph. Some pictures from the comp are shown below. It was a great afternoon and thanks to all those that came and made it such a great event.