THE final session of this Winter's Bowls Flyers was won in fine style by Tixall's Robbie Hall.

In the final he beat Cammell Laird's Dougie Briscoe, who yet again had a good run of results on his way to the final.

Hall had to come through a very hard series of games and possibly his hardest was in the first round, when he just got the better of Gladstone's Craig Saville.

He then beat another Tixall player, Ian Hazlehurst, in the quarter-finals before being just a little too good for Eddie Dutton of New Brighton Queens Royal in the semi-final.

In his first round, Briscoe beat the player who won the last top 16 event at Christmas, Lever Club's Joe Edwards, before getting the better of the inform Tony Cavanagh of Upton Victory Hall.

The semi-final with Rice Lane’s John Harrison went to the wire as Briscoe just sneaked home with a 21-20 win. The final was fairly straightforward for Hall as he recorded his first victory at these tournaments with a 21-15 win.

Results: Quarter-finals: Dutton 21, Andrews 20; Hall 21, Hazlehurst 16; Briscoe 21, Cavanagh 13; Harrison 21, Portis 17. Semi-finals: Hall 21, Dutton 12; Briscoe 21, Harrison 20.

Final: Hall 21, Briscoe 15.

As the new season starts to get under way, Gladstone won their preliminary round Cheshire Brunner Cup match on Saturday against Manchester RBL on a heavy green at Owley Wood. They had eight winners to their opponents’ four.

In the first series of matches in the Birkenhead and Wirral Afternoon League, last year's first division winners Heswall RBL had an interesting first game away to the newly-promoted Birkenhead SC, last year's Division Two champions.

Heswall showed why they are probably the favourites to take the title again by just winning through by six shots.

This Friday, April 11, at 6.15pm, the annual charity pairs match between Wirral Ladies and the Wallasey Bowls Association is taking place