Colin Gray who has recently returned to the Croydon area gave Shirley Park our only winner in this year’s BCBA competitions.
As usual we hosted the event and had a number of representatives in the Finals but home advantage once again did not add up to winning titles.
Colin took a 3 on the final end to break the deadlock winning 21-18 against Sean Dempsey (Purley Bury) in the Jubilee Singles.
The whole game had the same pattern, Colin building up a 5 shot lead only to be pulled back on two or three occasions until the decisive 3 gave him the title and his name up on the Outside Honours Board for the first of many times to come.
The Champion of Champions Trophy looked in the bag for Bob Budd against Barry Geal (CMO) when he led 20-14.
Needing just 1 shot Bob once again discovered that such are the fortunes of bowling that Geal would not give up and he put together a 3 end scoring spree of 7 shots to go with his earlier bursts of 7 and 5 to snatch a 21-20 victory leaving Bob and the partisan home supporters stunned into silence.
Warlingham Park Fours rink skipped by Ralph Bailey recovered from a 7 shot deficit to take a winning lead when they recorded 19 shots against 1 over a nine end spell to lead 19-8 by the twelfth end.
It was disappointing that so early in the match there was very little hope of Doug Spittles, David Candeland, Terry Taylor and Ken Farrington turning the match on its head against 4 excellent draw bowlers who had just a little good fortune to go with their outstanding play to give them a well deserved Championship for the second time in three years...
The winners of the Unbadged Pairs from Norwood Grove John McManus/Paul Vallerine gave their club their first winner of a BCBA title for many years when they controlled much of the game against our Alan Pring and Tom Johnstone, both our lads had played magnificently a few days earlier in the Semi final and have qualified for their BCBA Badge but on Finals day it just was not to be their day.
Like so many players who visit Shirley Park the playing conditions along with the atmosphere of Finals day lifts their game to a point which is just too much for the home players.
Social members Kevin and Ian Adcock representing Croydon BC both suffered the same fate, losing by a single shot in the BCBA Triples and the BCBA Championship Pairs.
Ian’s Triple was made up of Chris Ware and ex-Shirley Park member Mike Ware.
Shirley Park Bowling Club’s Carol McGrail rounded off another successful season at the clubs finals day held recently when she won the 2 Wood championship against Brenda Painter 25-17, Carol as expected started well building a 6 shot lead after 4 ends but Brenda settled and cut the lead to 2 shots after 9 ends. Carol recaptured her form and over the next 7 ends built up a 9 shot lead.
It took a further 13 ends for Carol to finish the job with the ends being shared evenly.
In the afternoon session Carol had a rematch against Brenda Lowe for the Ladies club championship which she retained 21-7. A match that started with the ladies scoring shot for shot until the tie stood at 6-6, then the tide swung dramatically over an 8 end period in favour of the in form Carol who went on to win the championship for the 4th year in a row..
Monica Turner enjoyed a double triumph when she partnered Club Chairman John Wake in the Mixed Pairs to victory in a sudden death decider against outsiders Ken Farrington and Eileen Vincent who at no time in the game were behind until the result of the deciding end.
Monica then went on to record a 21-12 victory over Eileen Vincent in the “Poppies” to be the first winner of the clubs newest competition for players who have not won a singles title, Eileen held a 6 shot lead early on but could not build on a flying start.
Bob Budd went one better by recording wins in the Vets against Bill Harris 24-16, Bill who whilst the rain fell got within sight of the winning post and he was winning comfortably 16-9 but with the change in the weather so did the game.
Bob Budd won the Handicap 25-9 against Paddy Kearney and the best quality game of the day just edging out John Wake in the 100 Up.
In the Men’s Singles Championship Colin Gray fresh from his previous days success in the BCBA finals won a hard fought game against Ray Hambling playing in his first season at the club.
Ray must have regretted making a slow start finding himself 16-8 down only to enjoy an inspired spell closing the gap to just 4 shot before Colin produced a 3 end winning burst to take the crown 21-13.
Ladies Captain Pauline Franklin is finishing off a very successful first season as Captain winning comfortably with Frances Yarwood the Ladies Pairs title 27-11 against Pam Harris and Brenda Lowe.
Men’s Captain Richard Turner fared less well against the pin point accuracy of Doug Spittles in the 2 Wood going down 21-7.
WW & H: David Kerney beat Tom Johnstone 23-10 in a match that Tom only threaten to get back into with a 3 end winning burst, Tom has had a magnificent season qualifying for his BCBA badge with some excellent performances in the Unbadged Pairs with Alan Pring.
Ladies 100 Up: Brenda Lowe 104, Joan Farrington 86. Joan started well but a decisive 10 points to Brenda in the 11th end gave Brenda a 16 point advantage which Joan was unable to close.
Men’s Pairs: Yarwood/Isaac lost to Oliver/Davies 23-15. Once John and Terry overhauled the handicap advantage in the 8th end they didn’t allow Keith and Dave to get any toe hold in the game.
Shirley Park BC are on a roll
Shirley Park Ladies BC are on a prolonged run of success both as a club and also as individuals.
Carol McGrail continued a run of success stretching back to her appearance in the National Indoor Finals in April through to reaching the quarter final stages of the National mixed Pairs at Worthing recently.
Along the way Carol also played in the Outdoor National finals, at Leamington earlier this month.
The SP ladies had 11 representatives in the BCLBA semi finals but only Eve Emmingham made it through to finals day.
Eve took an early lead but she could not maintain her winning form and eventually had to settle for being the runner up in the two wood championship.
The Shirley Park Men also had Doug Spittles representing Surrey at Worthing in the National Championships last week.
Doug progressed through to the quarter finals of the Men’s Singles before losing to the eventual National Champion 18-21.
Doug, Ken Farrington, Terry Taylor and David Candeland (Fours), Colin Gray (Jubilee) and Bob Budd (C of C) all had a chance to add to our Ladies success when they with Alan Pring and Tom Johnstone (Unbadged Pairs) all qualified for the BCBA Finals day.