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Jubilant Gwilliam

Frank Quigley and Jamie Bramley
30/ 4/2008

BOWLS: GARETH Gwilliam was in scintillating form as he coasted to victory in the Chadkirk Business Park-sponsored Woodley Spring Classic.

The last 16 games went very much to form, with the exception of the Jason Lockett versus Dave Gwilliam game.

Lockett made sure father Dave and son Gareth wouldn’t meet in the quarter-finals by beating Gwilliam 21-15, while homester Darren Burgess fell at the same hurdle, 21-12 against Paul Bailey.

In the quarter-finals Lockett then came up against Gareth Gwilliam.

This time it was young Gwilliam’s turn to avenge his father’s defeat when he sent Lockett packing 21-14.

The other quarter-final games saw Paul Dudley edge out Paul Bailey 21-20, Paul Wilson beat Nigel Tideswell 21-10, and G I Wilson saw off Mark Ferris 21-15.

The semi-finals saw Wilson looking for a hat-trick of Woodley Spring classic wins, but Gwilliam had other ideas and went in to a 12-8 lead.

Wilson pegged a couple back, but could not match Gwilliam’s play on the day.

Gwilliam allowed Wilson just one more single before weighing in 21-11.

Another Wilson - Paul - bit the dust 21-9 in the other semi-final when he came up against Dudley who had been in outstanding form all day.

It looked odds-on for a great final, but alas it wasn’t to be as young Gwilliam went on to beat Dudley 21-9 in what wasn’t a true reflection of the game.

Dudley played well but Gwilliam played that bit better.

Alan Heavyside was on hand to present the Silver Platter and a cheque for £500 to the jubilant winner Gwilliam, who lost in the Woodley Spring Classic final in 2004.

On Spring bank holiday Monday May 5 at the Nursery Bowling Club on Green Lane, Heaton Norris, Colin Price has set up an Invitation 16 event for players to play for the Freddie Hulme Trophy.

The draw is as follows: G I Wilson v G Telford; L Turner v T King; L Lawton v C MacDonald; G Ellis v A Daykin; T Johnstone v G Hickey; C Armitage v J Derby; B Duncan v A Cairns; N Burrows v K Morris.

THE Stockport and District League continued to excite last week with some thrilling and intriguing results.

Although it’s still early days, Nursery BC top the tree in A Division, and they maintained pole position with an emphatic whitewash of Poynton Sports at Green Lane.

This result gave them a 13-point haul, but both Houldsworth WMC and Waggon and Horses chased them down with good scores themselves.

The Waggon are the surprise package so far and they posted seven winners and the aggregate at home to Woodley Sports.

The best card for the Handforth men went to Billy Hibbert (21-5) against David Mee, while Wayne Hampson won a quality match 21-11 against Paul Bailey.

Last year’s champions Houldsworth WMC are now beginning to gather pace after an uncharacteristically slow start.

Terry Gale’s side romped to a 12-4 away day success at Romiley Arms.

The Leamington Road club sealed a good week by winning against Altrincham Borough in the Brunner Cup.

Elsewhere in A Division New Mills faltered to a defeat at Grapes Hotel and early pacesetters Whaley Bridge were comprehensively beaten at Houldsworth WMC 2.

The B Division has seen Crown Hotel begin like a house on fire, and they maintained their progress with eight winners and the aggregate at home to Grange.

Early title rivals Victoria topped that scoreline when crushing the Grapes with nine winners.

Other sides in the mix for promotion include Great Moor CC, and they took eight winners off Hazel Grove at Store Street.

The Thursday game saw a thrilling match go the way of PATF 8-7.5 against LMRCA, although the hosts only took the aggregate by three chalks in a thriller.

The Stockport Parks match of the night last Wednesday was at Webb Lane.

Victoria BC managed to edge past Heaton Norris 178-166, with the card of the night going to Roy Tarmey (21-9) against Dave Bandey.

South Reddish lead the way however, and they took nine winners and 202 chalks against Cale Green.

The B Division early standings show Marple Park top 16 chalks in front of Love Lane.

Last week Marple snared 156 chalks and Love Lane credited 140 chalks to their points account.

Meanwhile, concerns surrounding parks bowling in Stockport continues unabated, with teams still turning up short of players despite the reduction of players on each team.