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South Derbyshire Crown Green Bowling Association
Secretary / Competition Secretary Report - Season 2009
Ladies & Gentlemen
Henhurst A returned to the league this year but we lost Belper Meadows A from last year. From when the fixtures were compiled Stretton B and Alvaston & Crewton withdrew from divisions three and four. The performance of the season was that of Stretton Anglesey who went through the whole season undefeated in winning the premier league as well as winning the Dickie Cup, the Derbyshire County Cup and the Champion of Champions.
Individual Merit
The first event of the season was the merit and we had four qualifying greens with two from each going to the final day which was to be held at Spondon B.C.. Mick Bacon (Rowditch) won through at Alvaston & Boulton along with Steve Rogers of Derby Co-op. Andy Rushforth of Alvaston & Boulton and Jeff Tatem of Brackens qualified at Derby Co-op. Eddie Furniss of Rowditch and Andy Ryder of Alvaston & Boulton came through at Rolls Royce and Ron Sturgess of Netherseal and Neil Gibson of Littleover progressed at Brackens. On the finals day at Spondon Andy Rushforth beat club-mate Andy Ryder in one quarter final game whilst Eddie Furniss put out Steve Rogers. Neil Gibson and Mick Bacon decisively beat Ron and Jeff respectively. Neil won a close semi final against Mick 21-17 but Eddie was always in control in the other semi and beat Andy to 11. The final was a close affair with Neil winning 21-18 to take the title. Jeff, Steve and Andy Ryder won play-off games to join the semi finalists as the seven to go through to the Derbyshire Merit at Holbrook B.C. At the County Merit finals our contenders did quite well. Andy Rushforth lost in the final to five times winner, Andrew Spragg of Old Whittington. Eddie Furniss also lost to Andrew Spragg, after three wins he went down in the semi finals. These two both qualified to play in the British Crown Green Merit Finals along with Calvin Jackson ( Alvaston & Boulton ) and Neil Worthington ( Stretton Anglesey ) both of whom play in our league but qualified for the County event through the Burton League merit.
Charity Cup
The Charity Cup in which players are handicapped according to the division in which they league bowl was won by Daniel Petcher of Eureka Park who beat King’s Newton’s Neil Hill 21-17 in the final. The event was scheduled to be played at Derby Co-op but adverse weather conditions made that green unplayable and so the event was switched to Littleover. In very wet conditions 34 competitors took part. Dan beat Richard Eley of Netherseal 21-19 in the first round and this proved to be his toughest match. In the semi finals he put out Adam Dickinson of Derby Co-op 21-11. In the other half Neil beat Stephen Lightfoot of Hazelwood 21-17 in the semi final. Stephen had accounted for the holder, Mark Fearn of Littleover, in the first round.
Ray Hanson Doubles
After being curtailed by torrential rain on Sunday July 19th the event was completed on Thursday 13th August at Allstree B.C. Nineteen pairs contested the event as last year. Steve Gibson & Matt Ford of Littleover won the title beating Jim Bancroft & Julian Pinnington from Horsley 21-9 in the delayed final. On the original day the winners put out Kevin.Baker & Dave Fox of Derby Co-op (21-11), homesters, Peter Harper & Peter Wheeldon (21-20) and James Dennis & Eddie Furniss of Rowditch (21-18). Jim & Julian put out another home pairing when they beat Ray Trail & John Davies (21-11). They then accounted for Alvaston & Boulton pairings, Mick Sharratt & Mick Stills (21-13) and Jeremy Lockhart & Ben Ryder (21-10).
Main Leagues
A precedent was set in the Dean Burton premier league when Stretton Anglesey retained their title by going unbeaten throughout the season. Belvedere Park were a distant second but they were well ahead of last year’s runners-up Swadlincote Catholics. At the foot of the table Stretton and Ashbourne lost their premier status. Belmont Services completed their march through the divisions in successive years by winning Ashbourne B.C. division one. Stretton Anglesey A joined their first team in the premier division as runners-up. In stark contrast, Netherseal, who had accompanied Belmont through the leagues, made an immediate return to division two and they were joined by Eureka Park who just lost out to Sitwell Arms and King’s Newton in a close relegation battle. Vice-President’s division two was extremely competitive this year with ten teams being in contention for promotion for much of the season. Holbrook finally came out on top to win a second successive league title. Marehay A accompanied them up finishing just ahead of Horsley A, Rolls Royce 2 and Belper Pottery. Stretton A and Rolleston went down, Chaddesden Park just escaped by winning one more match than Rolleston. Stapenhill and Foreman’s Club finished well ahead of the rest in Alvaston & Boulton B.C. division three. At the foot Chellaston A finished well adrift and although Hazelwood were second from the bottom, Stretton B’s withdrawal at the start of the season will probably save them from relegation. Lamb Inn easily won division four. Littleover A beat Winshill A into the runners-up spot and Rolls Royce 3 and Ashbourne A were the bottom two. Newcomers, Henhurst A, easily won division five from Kings Newton A with Derby Co-op A not far behind.
Dickie Cup
King’s Newton won the only preliminary round game against Hazelwood. The game of round one was Marehay A’s one shot victory over Alvaston & Boulton 200-199. The other premier sides to fall at the first hurdle were Winshill, Derby Co-op, Henhurst and Horsley who went out to Chellaston, Denby, Chester Green and Spondon respectively. Rolls Royce 1 had a battle when giving 63 shots to Spondon B but they survived by three shots. Allestree and Hazelwood got through by eight shots against Belper Pottery A and Horsley A 234-226 and 228-220. Other close games were Etwall’s 213-199 win over Brackens, Washlands’ 218-205 victory over Henhurst A and Swadlincote Catholics’ 191-178 win against Netherseal. There were three all premier clashes in round two. Belvedere Park beat Littleover 202-159 and the holders, Stretton Anglesey, were equally untroubled by Washlands as they triumphed 191-158. Stretton won the battle between the premier’s basement teams as they beat Ashbourne 204-180. Spondon’s first two teams progressed into round three at the expense of Rolleston (223-214) and Etwall (226-206). Mayfield beat Hazelwood 221-202 and Allestree had another narrow win as they beat Rykneld 238-231. The two previous winners Stretton Anglesey and Marehay won all ten games against Stapenhill (210-178) and Spondon A (214-177) to ease through into the last eight. Belvedere Park had no trouble with Stretton winning 205-154 and Swadlincote Catholics put out Belvedere Park A 192-164. Belmont beat Rolls Royce 1 225-172 and Allestree beat Spondon 218-192. Eureka Park put out fellow division one side Mayfield 237-179. Stretton Anglesey A joined their first team in the quarter finals by winning the closest game of the round against Chellaston 212-202. On quarter finals day Swadlincote Catholics beat fellow premier side Marehay 187-174 but the other ties were quite one sided. Stretton Anglesey beat Belmont 210-155 and Stretton Anglesey A put out Eureka Park 228-176. Belvedere Park ended Allestree’s good run with a comfortable 212-140 victory. In the semi finals Stretton Anglesey easily beat their second team 206-170 and the other game was equally one sided as Belvedere Park went down 180-207 to Swadlincote Catholics. In the final Stretton Anglesey were 10 up after the first four games. They added 4 more in the middle and so the last two just needed tight games for their side to retain the trophy. They both won so the final margin of victory was 23 shots.
Champion of Champions
The holders, Stretton Anglesey beat Stapenhill 209-190 and Holbrook edged out Belmont Services 218-204 in the games on the Thursday to join Lamb Inn and Henhurst A on the final Sunday. On finals day Stretton Anglesey again took the trophy. They only lost one game against Henhurst A for whom 85 start was not quite enough as Anglesey won 209-202. The other semi-final was won by Lamb Inn. Holbrook started well and pulled back 20 of the 30 deficit in the first four but Lamb Inn struck back and the games were shared 5-5 and Lamb Inn won 224-211. In the final Stretton Anglesey won all of the games, five of them to single figures, to leave Lamb Inn 182-210 adrift at the finish.
Floodlit League
We gained Marstons and Rowditch 3 as new teams this year. Rowditch 3 played at Rowditch, hence the name, but were in fact players from Etwall B.C. Rowditch 2 returned to the league and Rykneld and Spondon both added third teams. Stretton Anglesey 2 withdrew from division four. Alvaston & Boulton 1 retained the division one title with Stretton Anglesey as runners up. Rolls Royce 1 and Horsley were the bottom two and they return to division two after coming up last year. Stretton 1 won division two from Belmont Services with Ashbourne 1 and Derby Co-op 1 being relegated. Washlands 1 took division three from Spondon 1, Newhall Social and Belper Pottery 1 went down. Stapenhill 1 and South Wingfield were the promoted pair from division four with Alvaston & Boulton 2 and Foreman’s Club going the other way. Newcomers, Rowditch 3 and Barton came up from division five and the relegated pair was the same combination as in division two, Ashbourne 2 and Derby Co-op 2. Spondon 2 took division six ahead of newcomers, Marstons. Washlands 2 and Sitwell Arms 2 went down. Rowditch 2 made a successful return by winning division seven from Rykneld 2. Rowditch 1 won the floodlit cup when they comfortably beat division one champions, Alvaston & Boulton 1 in the final. The losing semi finalists were Barton and Rowditch 2.
Juniors
Congratulations go to Conor Chamberlain of Stretton Anglesey who won the Derbyshire County junior merit title at Barton B.C. at the end of May. In the first round he beat James Glasby of Alvaston & Boulton, who had beaten him in the previous two year’s finals, 21-11. We played in the Derbyshire U16 tournament at Ashbourne and were runners up to Burton after beating Chesterfield. The Brian Walker Shield for the junior with the best record for the Derbyshire Junior County team was won this year by Lewis Belcher of Stapenhill. Thanks go to Russ Mosley for organizing the junior events and to David Brown who runs the Burton Association juniors for his co-operation.
Federation
After winning the league last year we had a disappointing time this year, just avoiding being relegated. We played Fylde in the first game and the two legs were played on different days. The home leg was played on May 24th at Derby Co-op and we made a good start gaining 76 shots and losing just three games. Rob Treece won 21-7 and Dean Taylor and Nick Jellyman both won to 8. The job was completed on June 14th when the away half got seven more wins plus the away aggregate. Matt Ford and David Allsop had fine 21-4 and 21-5 victories. The second game against Furness was on June 28th and although we won the home leg at Chellaston we were soundly beaten away at Lindal. Brian Woodcock won 21-3 at home but we lost four games and the home margin was +58. Matt Ford was the only away winner, however, and the away team lost by 87. The third game against Calderdale in July was very similar to the second game. We lost four games in the home game at Rolls Royce but took the aggregate by 34 with Ed Furniss (21-8) the only big winner. Again the away team struggled as only Dave Allsop (21-9) and Wayne Penny won and we went down at Mytholmroyd by 57. With one game to go the position in the table was tight. We could be runners up with a good last match but with only five teams in a division a poor one would leave us as relegation candidates. The August game was against Leeds and we played the home leg at Marehay. The game followed the pattern of the previous two with a 10-4 home win but despite the homester’s good wins, Gareth Nash (21-7) and Dave Parkin (21-5), the margin was only 32 shots. Fortunately the away side mustered the three needed to stay in the division as Scott Gibson, Darren Penny and Craig Pearson each managed to get a point. So we finished third in the table with 60 points, Calderdale (80) and Furness (67) beat us and we finished ahead of Leeds (59) and Fylde (54). 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 to all of the Clubs who staged games and catered for us in the home matches As last year the veterans only fielded one team in the Midlands division and we did not do as well. We came second to our old rivals Cannock, losing 3-7 to them but beating Swadlincote 7-3 and drawing 5-5 with Cannock B. On an individual front our area staged the veterans individual merit for the first time and home advantage told as the event was won by Cliff Robinson with Dave Merry runner up and myself beaten semi finalist.
Thanks
I would like to finish by thanking everyone who has helped me and the Association in any way during season 2009, all of the Officers and the Executive committee and all of the Club secretaries. We also thank all of our sponsors for their continued support.
Graham Jackson
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