Wirral Winter Flyers victory for Paul Roberts (From Wirral Globe)

Wirral Winter Flyers victory for Paul Roberts

12:28pm Monday 25th February 2013 in Sport By Bill Atkinson

IN RECENT weeks, bowlers coming over from North Wales to compete in the Winter Flyers have gone home empty-handed.

But on a bitterly cold morning in Birkenhead Park, Baileys Hill's Paul Roberts showed there is still fire in the welsh dragon when he took top spot in this Sunday's tournament.

In the final he beat Tixall's Anthony O' Neil, a player making his first appearance for some time.

In the quarter-finals, Roberts had a very good win against runaway leader in the points table Jamie Fitzpatrick, who also plays for Tixalls; while O'Neill beat another welsh player Abergele's Roger Griffiths.

O'Neill then had a tremendous battle against a resurgent John Cosgrove of New Brighton Quarry Vikings in their semi-final match, but Robert's victory over the Port Sunlight Works and Village player, John Harrison, was much more straightforward.

In the final, Roberts always had the upper hand and though O'Neill did all he could the welsh player held his form to win the match fairly comfortably.

Results:

 

Quarter-finals: J Harrison 21, N Hughes 16; P Roberts 21, J Fitzpatrick 12; A O'Neill 21, R Griffiths 17; J Cosgrove 21, J Kiley 14. 

Semi-finals: Roberts 21, Harrison 10; O'Neill 21, Cosgrove 19. 

Final: Roberts 21, O'Neill 17.

• Bowlers in Wirral can breathe a partial sigh of relief at the news that the proposal to totally cease maintenance of parks and open spaces had been dropped as a result of the comments from the public in the council’s "What Really Matters" consultation.

This means that fixtures already drawn-up for the coming season are safe.

Unfortunately, however, it still seems very likely that there could be problems in the future due to reductions in council spending.

All bowlers should be grateful to Robin May and the committee which worked so hard to present the case for Crown Green bowling in Wirral.