Leominster beat rivals to sit on brink of title

9:40am Friday 22nd August 2008

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LEOMINSTER have put one hand on the Tarmac League Championship with a 57-shot victory against second-placed St Martin’s.

With third and fourth-placed Kington and Hereford both losing their latest matches, Leominster’s points tally can only be matched by Llandrindod Wells who have several matches in hand.

Leominster’s win at St Martins turned into a one-sided contest with only the home club’s captain, Steve Booth, returning a winning rink as he skipped his four to a 10-shot win.

Otherwise, two 25-shot winning margins for the Leominster fours skipped by Brian Cade and Mark Suter put paid to any hopes that St Martin’s may have had of challenging Leominster.

John Harris’s rink finished off a very strong Leominster performance coming in with a 30-13 win to squash any hope held by St Martin’s of a table-topping finish to the season.

But Leominster have not had it all their way this year as, five days earlier, their championship bid suffered a severe jolt when they lost at home to Castle Green.

The visitors not only pulled off an excellent 16-shot win as they won on all four rinks, they also smashed Leominster’s undefeated home record that had stood for exactly two years.

Castle Green won on all four rinks and took maximum points to deny the league leaders any points in their quest for the championship. Alec Carter skipped the Castle Green rink to the visitors’ best win on the day with a 21-14 win, that was well supported with four-shot wins for the rinks each skipped by husband-and-wife duo Jan and Colin Reading.

Leominster fought hard for a win on the fourth rink where the result was in doubt until the very last bowl when Leominster’s skip Fred Williams had to concede a one-shot win to Alan Hardy’s Castle Green four to complete a clean sweep.

Castle Green are enjoying a good run at the moment as, five days after beating Leominster, they went to Hereford Bowling Club and won by five shots to extinguish the home club’s hopes of the championship.

Rink honours were shared but the decisive result came from the Castle Green four skipped by Colin Reading that won 22–8 to give a 14-shot advantage to the visitors. J J Harris’s Hereford four gave the home side a boost with a 22-13 shot result, but the other two competing rinks were both won by two shots by each club, so giving the match to Castle Green.

Kingsland are also enjoying a successful late run to the season with two wins out of two this week. A 33-shot win at home to Wellington saw Sandra Palmer’s four pick up a 32-10 win and take rink honours on the day.

Two further winning rinks were secured by the fours skipped by John Culver and Richard Brown, but Wellington did pick up two rink points with a 23–10 win for their four skipped by Tony Hoare.

Later in the week, Kingsland added to the woes of the reigning champions Kington, who have had a disappointing season, as they went down to their seventh League defeat, losing by seven shots.

Brinley Powell skipped a Kington four to their only win with a 26-11 result that was well matched by the Kingsland fours skipped by R Turner, Richard Brown and Sandra Palmer who, between them, won by 22 shots to take the match.

Three days after their visit to Kingsland, Wellington entertained Llandrindod Wells on their first ever match played at Wellington.

In an unusual result, Wellington won on three rinks out of four but still lost the match as the fourth rink suffered a heavy loss at 38 shots to 12.

Llandrindod Wells have to thank the four skipped by Barry Harrison for their match win as their winning margin of 26 shots was enough to offset the scores of the three rinks that were narrowly won by Wellington with a total margin of nine shots.

RESULTS: Kingsland 95 Wellington 62 (Home Rinks (W3 D0 L1), Leominster 62 Castle Green 78 (W0 D0 L4), Wellington 76 Llandrindod Wells 93 (W3 D0 L1), Hereford 67 Castle Green 72 (W2 D1 L2), St Martin’s 58 Leominster 115 (W1 D0 L3), Kingsland 77 Kington 70 (W3 D0 L1).