Ormskirk Bowling Club

Great result for the Ormskirk BC team last night in the Ormskirk Premier League. The picture speaks for itself. 😀

If you come down to the Club tonight you will get a feast of bowling. On the grass green it is a derby match between Ormskirk Castle and  league leaders Ormskirk Phoenix, whilst on the artificial Ormskirk BC take on Dog & Gun ‘A’ . Both matches start at 6.45pm.

It was great to see so many young players from our club representing Ormskirk West Lancs in the Federation Youth and Junior teams. Well done to Chris Farrell, Emma Gill, James Fairlie, Harry & Lily Copeland, Hannah Jones, Lucy Currie and Rylan Irwin. There were some great performances from you all.

All club members should have received an email with details of our range of club sports wear that can now be purchased through Premier Sports in Ormskirk. Try and pop in this week or call/email Premier to place your order so we can get a delivery the following week. Samples can be tried on in the shop if you need to check your size. Check out the polo modelled below by your Hon Sec.

Ladies, please note that polo shirts can be ordered in a ladies fit if that suits you best.

For an opening season round up it is brilliant news to see a three of our teams topping their respective tables.

In the Ormskirk League Premier Division our team leads the way after a good away win to Formby Holy Trinity and the Skem Park Rebels coming a cropper away at Hurlston Hall, although ominously the Rebels have played a game less and are only 4 points behind us.  In Division A the Ormskirk Castle team are sitting in mid table but have only played 3 games and could soon be making the grass green their stronghold.

The Aughton League Division 2 sees three of our teams competing, and the Phoenix have risen to the top after three straight wins, the last a convincing slaughter of the Saracens 9-2 on Wednesday evening at home.  Our Castle team is in mid table and the Ormskirk BC team is languishing second bottom after 4 straight losses.

The Westhead Premier League sees our Ormskirk BC team rock bottom after 2 difficult opening games, but Captain Horse sees this position improving and it is still early days.  There is a better story in Division 2 where the Castle lie second after 2 games played.

The Junior League sees another table topping team, with the Ormskirk Vikings getting off to a good start having won at home on the opening day and then gaining a creditable draw at the Falkland Road stronghold of the Scarisbrick Saracens, with several standout performances including a 21-20 win by Andrew Arnold and a great performance in the pairs by Harry Copeland.

A round up of tables and results can be viewed at http://bowlsnet.uk/OrmskirkBC/!Web.

Finally our club has reached the historic day when the first match was played on our grass green. The day final dawned, Friday 27^th April 2018 when Ormskirk Castle would play their first match on the grass green against Skelmersdale Park, having previously rearranged their home fixtures in both the Ormskirk & Aughton Leagues to be played away.

After some confusion  over the start time as the away team were under the impression that there were lights so arrived late, Angie (Captain) took no prisoners and told the away Captain she needed four names ASAP to get the match started with a fifth going on after a few ends.

The match started with the away team getting little or no practice, the going was heavy as it had been raining all day and it had not been possible to mow the green.

There were two wins out of the first four, John 21-16 & Joey 21-15, Chris who had gone on fifth came back with a win 21-18 after going 18-14 behind, winning the last four ends.

There were two more winners in the middle three, Pauline 21-18 & Stu 21-9.

Ted (10) finding himself last man standing after Eric (9) came off with a win, at this stage the Ormskirk Castle were just two points ahead on the aggregate so Ted needed to run out to 21-18 for us to win, the game was nip & tuck all the way through, Ted went into the lead at 19-16, his opponent won the next end now 17-19, Ted then had the chance to win the game with his opponent bowling two short bowls, unfortunately Ted’s second bowls was also short, now 20-17, Ted put up a good lead on the next end which was unbeatable winning the game 21-17 and Ormskirk Castle the match with an aggregate of 172 to 170.

The green will now only get better and better under Eric’s expert greensmanship and we can now look forward to an even brighter future for the club with our grass green in operation.

Just a reminder that all fixtures, results, averages and tables can be found on our new club portal at http://bowlsnet.uk/OrmskirkBC/!Web.  You can also find a link to the Maghull League, which isn’t on Bowlsnet, there.

For easy access, if you have an iphone or ipad once you get this page up on your device click on the little box with an arrow sticking out of it (top right), and then when the options come up click on ‘add to home screen’ to give you a direct link to the site. Not sure how you do this on android phones.

The Winter Ladder finals were held this afternoon, and there were some surprisingly one sided games, with possibly the wind making it tricky for the competitors.  The quarter finals saw Martin Roberts, stepping in for Ed Stockley who had to withdraw due to a swollen foot, play Ian Gill, and the lack of preparation showed with a 15-4 win to Ian.  Mike Fagan, despite trailing early on, found his stride to defeat Geoff Howard 15-9.  Steve James overcame Danny Jones 15-2.  This left the potentially closest game – Chris Horsfall v Ted Baker. However, it proved to be a one sided affair, and on Grand National the Horse fell at the third and toppled down 15-3.  It would have been compassionate to have him shot but the decision was made to let him play another day!

The semi finals saw Steve James beat Mike Fagan 15-10, after it being neck and neck early on and Ian overcame Ted to win 15-8.

This set up what should have been a monumental final between last year’s champion, Steve, and Ian who had been top of the ladder at the end of March.  Curiously though Steve could not find his earlier form and meekly capitulated to hand Ian a 21-10 win.  Thanks to all those who came to support and mark, the rain held off and a good day was had by all.

Winter Ladder Finalists

Losing finalist and Club Chairman Steve James presents the trophy to winner Ian Gill

The Winter Ladder play off finals will be held this coming Sunday, starting at 2pm. All are welcome to come and view some top class bowling.  The afternoon starts with the quarter finals (15 up) and these will be swiftly followed by the semis (also 15 up) and then the final itself.  A reminder of the quarter final line up, which will be as follows

Match 1: Ian Gill v Edward Stockley
Match 2: Mike Fagan v Geoff Howard
Match 3: Steve James v Danny Jones
Match 4: Chris Horsfall v Ted Baker

The winner of Match 1 will play the winner of Match 4 in the semis, and the winner of Match 2 will play the winner of Match 3.

Well done to our new team, Ormskirk Phoenix, who won their first ever league game tonight away to Scarisbrick B.  A strong first 4 came in with three wins.  Martin Roberts continued his cup form with a 21-15 win, and Emma Gill and Archie Greaves scrapped home with 21-20 wins.  Finally Julie Brennan battled away to get 16 points.

The second 4 saw John Leadbetter get his first ever win, with a kitty winning 21-13 performance. Margaret Greaves followed her husband’s close win with a 21-19.  With Pauline Snelson going down 21-15 and Graham Finegan losing 21-8, despite a good performance, it was finely balanced going into the final game, with a captain’s performance needed.  Ian Gill came in with a 21-15 win in a thrilling climax, and this meant the aggregate was drawn 165 points each.  However, with 6 winners the Phoenix took the match 7-4 – not so much risen from the ashes but totally on fire!!