Park so close to bowls upset

The MC Glass sponsored-club were just one shot away from toppling star-studded Swale in the third round of the Denny Cup.

With the scores level at 67 each, the away rink of Steve Nevard, Colin Carrie, Steve Boswell and Peter Gunston played an extra end to decide the winners against international Paul Barnicott. They tantalisingly held four second shots but were unable to remove Swale's one shot bowl and so the Park went down by the narrowest of margins.

During their actual game, Gunston's team held Barnicott to a narrow 20-16 defeat whilst the other away rink of Ray Hodd, Stuart Holland jnr, Robin Boswell and Kevin Carrie also lost, but again by a small amount, 18-21 to Paul Barrett. The two youngsters - Holland and Carrie - both played well despite defeat.

At home, Bill Carter, Ernie Harris, Charles Wright and Nigel Hooper did well to lead ex-international Lee Shoobridge 14-7 after 12 ends. In a noisy, hard-fought encounter, Hooper's team eventually ran out 20-16 victors.

On the next rink, Terry Hodd, Dave Shorey, Steve Sands and Derek Deeprose put in another excellent performance against Chris Hall, who skipped the English triples champions in 1989, and won 22-19 after taking a 17-7 lead after 12 ends. After such a good game, the home team deserved to win but were grateful to Deeprose on the last end when, six down with one bowl to play, he moved the jack to restrict Swale to just one shot.

The aforementioned Gunston got this defeat out of his system when he skipped Sue Gunston, Geraldine Friola and Wright to a 30-13 away victory at Langney Sports in the second round of the EIBA Mixed Fours.

In the EIBA National Pairs, there were two all-Park affairs with Wright and Hooper defeating Terry Campbell and Allen McBride 28-18 and Holland jnr and Kevin Carrie winning against Nevard and Peter Gunston.