Title double for marvel Martin

The finals of the 77th Bexhill Men’s Open Bowls Tournament took place last Saturday afternoon on the bowling greens at The Polegrove.
By The Newsroom
Published 14th Aug 2014, 08:45 BST
Derek Deeprose, John Southgate and Mick Deeprose, winners of the triples at the 2014 Bexhill Men's Open Bowls Tournament, with David Fletcher, of tournament sponsors The Birchwood GroupDerek Deeprose, John Southgate and Mick Deeprose, winners of the triples at the 2014 Bexhill Men's Open Bowls Tournament, with David Fletcher, of tournament sponsors The Birchwood Group
Derek Deeprose, John Southgate and Mick Deeprose, winners of the triples at the 2014 Bexhill Men's Open Bowls Tournament, with David Fletcher, of tournament sponsors The Birchwood Group

In the championship singles, Martin Heitzman (Spartan BC) beat Stuart King (Knaphill BC) 21-11 after 17 ends in a very disappointing final.

Heitzman was leading 10-2 after five ends before King scored a four to make the score 10-6. Heitzman scored a two and a three before King won the next four ends with four singles to close to 15-11. Heitzman scored 1-2-1-2 over the next four ends to win the championship.

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The two semi-finals in the morning were also very disappointing games. The first game saw Heitzman beat John Pannett (Victoria Drive BC) 21-6 after 16 ends. In the other semi-final, King defeated David Miller (Horsham BC) 21-6 after 18 ends.

Pannett and Miller shared the trophy for the best visiting players not reaching the final, while Michael Stone (Sidley Martlets BC) won the trophy for the best local player not reaching the final.

The championship pairs winners were Declan Nye, who is unattached and has not bowled for two years, and Heitzman. They beat Carl Dyer and Stone (Sidley Martlets BC) 17-16 on an extra end and a measure in the best final of the day.

Nye and Heitzman were leading 9-3 after eight ends, but after 17 ends, the scores were tied at 14-14. The next four ends were shared with four singles, making it 16-16 after the regulation 21 ends.

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In the semi-finals, Dyer and Stone had a 20-16 win over Alan Clack and Francois Celada (Eastbourne BC). In the other semi, Nye and Heitzman pipped Phil Saunders and Lee Heitzman (Spartan BC) 22-19 in another very good game.

The triples winners were John Southgate (Harrow BC), and Mick and Derek Deeprose (Sidley Marlets BC), who edged out Michael Gosden, Stuart King and Mark Dunne (Knaphill BC) 17-15 in another good final. The winners mounted a very good comeback from 15-8 down after 13 ends by scoring 1-1-1-5-1 on the last five ends.

The winners beat Jack Crawford (Carreras BC), John Barnes (Tilbury BC) and Ken Barber (Leighton Buzzard BC) 17-12 in the semi-finals.

In the other semi-final, the losing finalists scraped past Peter Oakman (White Rock BC), Martin Naylor (Rosemount BC) and Adam Oakman (White Rock BC) 19-18 on an extra end having been 18-8 down after 13 ends.

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The consolation pairs was won by Pauline Jackson and Barry Fordham (Eastbourne BC), who beat Ann and Gordon Scott (Bexhill BC) 24-12.

David Fletcher - representing the Birchwood Group, who were the main sponsors of this year’s tournament - presented the trophies to the winners.

The event was very well organised again by the tournament committee, which was once again ably led by Bill Whittington.