Four-midable Baldock

Baldock, representing Hertfordshire, were runners-up in the All England national fours finals recently at Royal Leamington Spa.

The team was lead Anne Haywood from Baldock, Heather Stapleford from Stevenage at two, Rose Castle from Letchworth Garden City at three and skip Shirley Page from Baldock.

They began the championship with a win over Isle of Wight 37-7, followed by wins over Lincs 15-14, Beds 22-19, Berkshire 22-13 and Kent 21-11 before narrowly losing in the final to Surrey 20-16.

This fantastic performance will be marked as they attend the Bowls England dinner at the Walkers Stadium, Leicester, to receive their trophies in November.

Letchworth and District completed their busiest week of the season with two games.

They enjoyed a narrow win at Baldock last Wednesday, defeating the home team 114-110.

The District won four out of the six rinks, the biggest winners being David Webb (Holwell), debutant Jim Syme (Roebuck), Terry Stout (Stevenage Town) and skip Mick O'Flanagan (Royston Town) who beat the rink skipped by Brian Todd 30-15.

Other scores (skips only): K Lamacraft 22, D Turner 12; J Brackley 9, J Crosby 31; P Adams 19, M Wintrup 20; J Winters 15, S Page 14; D Eddington 19, M Swain 18.

On Sunday, the District travelled to Bocking BC, Essex, and suffered a reversal of fortunes by going down 95-111.

Both teams won three triples each, the highest District triple being Vaughan Bysouth (Royston), Ted Day (Letchworth Garden City) and, collecting his second award in five days, skip Terry Stout.

Other scores: K Lamacraft 15, I Butcher 12; D Wright 12, G Stewart 16; S Kilford 19, C Tokley 17; T Fuller 15, D Radford 21; N Mean 8, J Puttock 26.

The next game will be against a Herts county team in celebration of the District's 60th anniversary next Thursday afternoon (August 28) at Whitethorn BC.

Stotfold's C team had a win against Ampthill A in the East Beds League, a result that keeps them in the top two in Division One.

Unfortunately in the same division, their B team could only draw against Sandy Town B, a result that sees them relegated to Division Two.

In Division Four, the A team had a win against Sandy Con D to earn promotion to Division Three.

Their D team also won in Division Six to take them away from the bottom.

In the Second Division of the Beds County League, Stotfold had a great win against Bedford Queens Works 87-79, gaining seven points in the process which was enough to secure promotion to Division One by just one point.

Rink one: T Collins, M Legate, P Bell and M Rowe won 23-16. Rink two: T Regan, R Legate, F Amos and B Bell won 26-20. Rink three: A King, E Legate, C Albon and A Holloway lost 20-24. Rink four: R Beale, M Everitt, M Cave and R Drury lost 18-19.

Hitchin Town hosted a rejuvenated Fairfield side on four rinks, winning by three games to one (84-60), on Saturday.

The top rink was John Hill, Gerry Billingham, Mick Squires and Stewart Dawson.

Rink one: L Hill, N Webb, W Harrison, A Hill won 19-18. Rink two: G Corda, M Wells, A Cook, I Thorne won 25-18. Rink three: J Hill, G Billingham, M Squires, S Dawson won 26-5. Rink four: R Allen, N MacLeod, R Cole, I Page lost 14-19.

Hitchin's weekday bowlers were short of players when they played Luton Co-op last Tuesday. With two borrowed players from the Co-op club, the Hitchin club were soundly beaten.

Rink one: B Clark, A Fletcher (Co-op), T Carter lost 9-32. Rink two: B Waller (Co-op), D Conder, J Porter lost 11-26. Rink three: A Marsden, B Marsden, K Porter lost 13-19. Rink four: R Allen, M Squires, D Porter won 13-19.

Hitchin were again so short of players that the match last Thursday versus Datchworth had to be cancelled.

Whitethorn played their penultimate North Herts Ladies' Triples League match last Thursday at home against Knebworth.

On a wet evening, Whitethorn managed to win on one rink and draw on the other, giving them five of six possible points.

Scores: Anne Gulliver, Trish Elderfield and Mary Dean drew 14-14; Carol Platten, Rose Varney and Angie Fabris won 18-17.

On Saturday, Whitethorn played a mixed friendly match away at Norton and won by 87-74.

Scores: Karen McLellan, Vic Eames and Terry Saunders lost 17-21; Carol Conlon, Michael Varney and Terry Ware won 22-12; Pat Clayson, Peter Willson and Barry Platten won 20-13; Carol Platten, Rose Varney and Peter Garside drew 13-13; Norman Clayson, Ken Rowell and Albie McLellan drew 15-15.

On Sunday, Whitethorn hosted a friendly match at home against Buntingford. It was won by Whitethorn 149-91 with two rinks of ladies and four rinks of men.

Scores: Elaine Jones, Carol Conlon, Anne Gulliver and Jenny Ralph won 27-13; Mavis Judd, Sandra Gowlett, Trish Elderfield and Angie Fabris won 24-17; John Fabris, Mary Dean, Tim Elderfield and Mick Gowlett won 29-16; John Wood, Vic Eames, Bob Ralph and Billy Chaudhery lost 18-20; John Devereux, Chris Hensler, Michael Judd and Terry Saunders won 20-10; Barry Boughton, Tony Scaplehorn, Peter Garside and Barry Platten won 31-15.

Howard Garden played local rivals Willian last Wednesday in a SDML match and won 80-65, taking six out of seven points.

Rink one: Peter George, Harry Tindall, Maureen Smith and Dave Greatorex won 27-13. Rink two: Pauline Kingsmill, Carl Gee, Trevor Hyland and Doug Fenn lost 11-23. Rink three: Doug Kingsmill, Pam Rowe, Ted Offord and Daphne Brothers won 22-11. Rink four: Tony Wood, Ken Adams, Les Smith and Colin Robinson won 20-18.

On Saturday, Howard Garden and North Herts met up for a friendly triples match which resulted in a draw 69 shots each.

Sunday was the Greatorex Gala Day which was won by Tony Wood and Carl Gee the runner-up.

The midweek bowlers lost 47-77 against Letchworth Garden City and 39-53 against Barton.

Datchworth played six matches during the past week with contrasting results.

Scores: Datchworth Blue 27 Beehive 38; Datchworth Gold 41 Amwell Rotary 27; Datchworth Blue 23 Sele Farm 39; Datchworth Gold 30 Cuffley Hawks 30; Datchworth 142 Ware 116; Datchworth 83 Sele Farm 151.