|
Secretary / Competition Secretary Report - Season 2007
Ladies & Gentlemen
This year we lost Osmaston MSC and Overdale due to the closure of their greens. Chaddesden Park B suffered a player shortage and withdrew from division three and Ashbourne C withdrew from division five. We welcomed Breadsall B.C. who took the league place of Wyvern. After a good start in late April and early May the weather was very unkind in mid season although the latter part was OK there were an unusually large number of postponed games and to many were not rearranged and played later.
Individual Merit
The first event of the season was the merit and we had eight qualifying greens with the winner of each going to the final day which was to be held at Chester Green. Mick Bacon (Rowditch) won through at Derby Co-op and David Allsop (Marehay) and the holder Darren Smith (Stretton Anglesey) qualified at Littleover 1 and Littleover 2. The two through at Spondon were Geoff Fairbrass who won the Nottingham green heat and Brian Woodcock (Ashbourne) who won on the Derby green. Ian Woodward (Netherseal) and Jim Sharman (Rowditch) were the qualifiers from Allestree’s old and new greens and Keith Widdowson (Littleover) triumphed at King’s Newton. On the finals day at Chester Green the quarter finals saw Woodcock beat Allsop 21-11, Smith put out Sharman 21-9, Fairbrass get past Widdowson 21-16 and Bacon triumph over Woodward 21-11. The two Stretton Anglesey players lost in the semi-finals, Darren Smith lost 20-21 to Brian Woodcock and Geoff Fairbrass went down 17-21 to Mick Bacon. The final, like the two semis, was another close affair with Mick Bacon getting home 21-19 against Brian Woodcock to take the trophy. We had seven qualifiers for the Derbyshire County finals so play-offs were needed between the losing quarter finalists. Ian Woodward was the one the one to miss out. At the County Merit finals at Rykneld B.C. Darren Smith fared the best of our group, losing in the quarter finals to his club mate Neil Worthington who went on to take the title. Keith Widdowson had lost 20-21 to Worthington in the previous round after winning his opener. Mick Bacon won his first game well (21-6) but he went out in the same round as Keith. All of the other qualifiers lost their first game. Andy Spragg of Chesterfield lost in the final of the County event to Worthington but he had qualified to defend his All Britain title which he went on to do at Penn Fields in Wolverhampton. Darren Smith had also qualified for the national event by winning his first two games and John Dewey who plays for Belvedere Park in our league but had qualified for the County event through the Burton League heat also qualified to go to the national finals as had of course the winner of the County title, Nigel Worthington of Stretton Anglesey.
Charity Cup
The Charity Cup in which players are handicapped according to the division in which they league bowl was won by Darren Smith of Stretton Angelsey who beat Littleover’s Geoff Fairbrass 21-17 in the final. There was a larger field than of late with a convenient 32 taking part at Rowditch B. C. The only long handicap player that Darren beat was Ged Haynes of Foreman’s Club who was off 4, that being his semi-final game. His other victories were over Gareth Nash, Keith Widdowson and myself. Geoff put out two Netherseal players, Roger Eley and John Redfern (in the semi-final), previous winner, David Stevenson, and Roy Smith.
Ray Hanson Doubles
As with the Charity Cup there was an increased entry this year including a large contingent from the hosts, Rykneld B.C. The holders, Eddie Furniss & David Stevenson (Rowditch), won their preliminary and round one games before falling to Jeremy Lockhart & Andy Rushforth (Alv. & Boulton). The winners were the Belmont pair Terry Bosworth & John Gardner who beat Lockhart & Rushworth 21-15 in the final. The host pairings had a good day with Geoff Barrow & Barry Legg and Gordon Lathwell & Jim Leake making their way to the semi-finals.
Main Leagues
The premier league, now sponsored by Paul Burton of Chaddesden Park in memory of his son Dean, was retained by Stretton Anglesey by a 9 point margin over last year’s runners-up, Swadlincote Catholics. Marehay had an excellent season and finished in third place. At the foot of the table Rowditch and Sitwell Arms 1 made an immediate return to division one. LIttleover A led Division 1 by a good margin for much of he season but they faded near the end and were pipped by Belvedere Park A but they just stayed a point ahead of Alvaston & Boulton A. Newhall Social finished well adrift at the foot of the table and they were accompanied down by the unfortunate Chester Green whose fate was taken out of their own hands because of unplayed games. Washlands won Vice Presidents Division 2 with King’s Newton going up with them because of a better aggregate than Horsley A who had finished with an identical record. Belvedere Park B and Spondon A filled the relegation spots. Netherseal and Belmont Services finished well ahead in division 3 and so these two continue their climb up the leagues. At the bottom Alvaston & Crewton finished well adrift of Etwall A who in turn were well behind the rest. Holbrook won division 4 by a good margin from Hazelwood who had a second successive promotion. Ashbourne B and Rowditch A were the bottom two. There was a tight battle in division 5 with Kings Newton A just prevailing ahead of Breadsall who had a better aggregate than Rolls Royce 3.
Dickie Cup
Chellaston A and Hazelwood had close victories in the preliminary round and they were joined in round one by Denby. The holders, Belvedere Park, went out at the first attempt to retain the trophy when they were well beaten by Belmont in round one. Round one also saw Stretton and Horsley win all premier clashes with Rolls Royce 1 and Derby Co-op respectively. Narrow winners included Denby, Lamb Inn and Tutbury who beat Chellaston (226-225), Brackens (219-215) and Marehay A (213-209). Stretton were the only premier side to fail in round two when they went down by 10 shots to King’s Newton. Marehay and Alvaston & Boulton came through difficult ties against Holbrook and Mayfield respectively. The closest games were Winshill A’s 246-243 win against Rykneld A and Spondon’s 223-217 victory over Foreman’s Club. Stretton Anglesey won the all premier clash with Alvaston & Boulton in round three 195-168 and there were comfortable passages for Littleover, Belvedere Park A and Washlands. The other games were close with Rolls Royce 2 winning 189-187 against Swadlincote Catholics, King’s Newton 193-190 against Spondon, Belmont 214-210 against Stretton Anglesey A and Marehay 202-195 over Eureka Park. Quarter finals day was one of the many hit by appalling weather and one game had to be rearranged. Marehay had a good win against the well handicapped Belmont and won 207-188. Belvedere Park A accounted for Rolls Royce 2 215-201 and Washlands repeated their 2005 final achievement by beating the premier champions, Stretton Anglesey, by 202-191. Littleover comfortably beat King’s Newton 204-174 when the match was played the following week. Both of the semi-finals were one sided as the premier sides both took immediate control with single figure wins aplenty. Marehay beat Belvedere Park A 215-151 and Littleover had a similar 215-159 margin over Washlands. The 2007 Dickie Cup Final was decided in the first four jacks. Marehay won three of the games well and took a grip on the match which was not relaxed. The next four games were shared 2-2 with Littleover falling nine more shots behind. The last two games were close and although Littleover won them Marehay had triumphed by 32 shots overall. So Marehay had achieved their first Dickie Cup win and left Littleover to record a second successive final defeat.
Champion of Champions
The holders, Stretton Anglesey beat King’s Newton A 210-156 and Holbrook edged out Belvedere Park A 215-208 in the games on the Thursday to join Washlands and Netherseal on the final Sunday. On finals day Stretton Anglesey again took the trophy without being too extended. They lost two games to Washlands and won 202-175 in the semi-final and the final was a similar story against division three winners, Netherseal. Four single figure winners saw then to a 208-175 victory. The closest game on the day was the semi-final in which Netherseal beat Holbrook 236-207 but this result was never really in doubt after the first five had pulled back the 12 shot handicap deficit.
Floodlit League
The floodlit league continued to grow with new teams Barton and Hazelwood joining us, Chaddesden Park returning and additional teams entered from Chellaston and Rolls Royce. We had an extra division but as it only had five teams in it they played each other three times. Littleover 1 took the division one title from the holders, Marehay 1 with Ashbourne 1 and Stretton 1 the bottom two. Alvaston & Boulton 1 won division two to make a quick return to the top flight and they were accompanied by Henhurst 1. Sitwell Arms 1 and Littleover 2 were the relegated pair. Belmont continue to climb and they took division three from Rowditch 1 who just pipped Spondon 1 into second place. Swadlincote Catholics 2 and Stretton 2 were at the bottom. Washlands were top and bottom of division four. The first team took the title and go up with Rolleston. Washlands 2 went down with Rykneld. Denby and King’s Newton headed led division four with Spondon 2 and Rolls Royce 2 at the wrong end of the table. Stapenhill were the division six champions by quite a margin with Marehay 2 edging out Sitwell Arms 2 for the runners-up spot. Belper Pottery 2 and Littleover 3 were the bottom two of a six team division. The newcomers were far too strong for the other division seven teams so Barton and Hazelwood headed the table. The cup was won by Alvaston & Boulton 1 who beat Marehay 1 in the final 151-134. Washlands 1 and Rolleston were the losing semi-finalists.
Juniors
The first junior event of 2007 was the Gordon Ellis Trophy which was won by Matt Milsom of Stretton Anglesey who beat James Glasby of Alvaston & Boulton in the final. The event was played at Littleover. James went one better when he won the Derbyshire County junior merit which was held at Clowne M.W. on a very wet day at the end of May. He beat Conor Chamberlain of Stretton Anglesey in the final after coming through against Darryl Matkin (Burton), Scott Jones (Heage) and club mate Ben Ryder in the semi-final. We again played in the junior and youth team Federation three one day tournaments and staged a heat at Washlands this year. The junior team had a good year and won seven of their nine matches and the youth team won four out of eight. For the juniors Daniel and Adam Hartley both won seven game and William Glasby, Owen Bennett and Liam McNeilly six. In the youths games Ashley Clipstone, Andrew Day, Ben Ryder and Abbi Robinson all won five. The Brian Walker Shield for the junior with the best record for the Derbyshire Junior County team was won this year by Josh Hall of King’s Newton. Thanks once again go to David Robinson (Littleover) for his work in organizing the junior events and to David Brown who runs the Burton Association juniors for his co-operation.
Federation
We had another good year in division one winning two of the four matches very well to take the runners-up spot in the table. We won our first game against Leeds by the excellent margin of 76 shots. The away squad won a tight game by 8 shots with seven winners led by a 21-9 from Ollie Walters (Stretton). At Ashbourne the home team had a comfortable plus 68 shots with Dave Redfern, Tim Glasby (Alv. & Boulton) and Brian Woodcock (Ashbourne) all winning to single figures. So we start the campaign with 23 points. We returned to Ashbourne’s other green for the May fixture against Calderdale but this time came unstuck. The home side lost the aggregate by 7 shots with each team winning six games whilst in the away half only Dave Allsop (Marehay) and Clive Gascoigne (Stretton) won. We did not play in June or July but August saw us back to our best with a decisive win over Warrington. We had nine winners in the home leg at Chellaston headed by Dean Sherwin (Horsley) and David Robinson (Littleover) who won 21-5 and 21-7 respectively. The away squad had an excellent day with eight winners and the aggregate. Craig Pearson (Rowditch) led the way with a 21-9. So we went into the last match against Doncaster needing a big win to take the title and five points to finish second. The home half at Horsley had nine winners headed by a 21-11 by Matt Ford (Sitwell Arms) but the away half found life tough with only the Alvaston & Boulton pair, Andy Ryder and Andy Rushworth winning. Thirteen points from this match meant that we finished with 69 points for the season, four more than last year to finish 20 behind Doncaster but 9 ahead of Calderdale. Thanks go to the two team captains Nick Jellyman and David Redfern and to all of the players especially those prepared to travel. We are also grateful all of the Clubs who staged games and catered for us in the home matches The veterans’ teams played again this year in the Midlands division but did not fare so well. Both finished in the same place in the table as last year but we were both well adrift of the leaders, Cannock. The B team won one game and drew one finishing third in the group. Eddie Springer (Rowditch) had the best record with four wins. John Davies, Peggy Parke and Sylvia Hughes all won three. The A team won three and drew once. Cliff Robinson (Littleover) won four games and Paul Roberts, Derrick Perry and myself all won three. Cannock who won the title again went on to win the finals when the area winners met at the end of the season. Thanks go to Brian Varty and Peter Lloyd for captaining and organizing these two teams.
Thanks
I would like to finish by thanking everyone who has helped me and the Association in any way during season 2007, all of the Officers and the Executive committee and all of the Club secretaries. Thanks are also due to all of our sponsors.
Graham Jackson
|