Victory for Birkenhead in national competition (From Wirral Globe)

Victory for Birkenhead in national competition

4:56pm Monday 23rd July 2012 in Sport By Bill Atkinson

ON Sunday teams from the Wallasey Association and from Birkenhead and District went down to Stoke, North Staffs, to take part in the National Parks Veterans Team Championships.

Though the teams from Wallasey were eliminated in the group stages the Birkenhead and District team got through to the semi final stage where they met North Staffs 'B'.

This was no problem to the strong Birkenhead side and they easily won to get to the final where they met the North Staffs 'A' side.

This was a much tougher game but, after initially falling behind, the teams were level with the last pairing on the green.

However Higher Tranmere's Gerry Riley held his nerve and he took the Birkenhead side to a well-deserved victory.

The qualifying rounds of the Birkenhead and Wirral's Afternoon Section Ben Webster Tournament got off to a wet start on Monday afternoon but after that there were no more problems and the final, played at Tixalls on Friday afternoon, was won by Manor Road's Keith Wharton.

When he beat Heswall RBL's Mallie Andrews Wharton became one of only two players to win this trophy for the second time, the other is Albany's Alan Battle.

In the quarter finals Wharton had a fairly comfortable win over Keith Fraser before going on to get the better of Peter Hughes.

Andrews had showed tremendous form in qualifying for the final, beating firstly Brian Somerville and then Dave Rowland, but he found Wharton too hot to handle and the Manor Road player had another relatively comfortable match winning 21-11.

Results:

Quarter Finals: M. Andrews (Heswall) 21, B. Somerville (Higher Tranmere) 17; D. Rowland (Higher Tranmere) 21, D. Jones (Levers) 03; P. Hughes (Higher Tranmere) 21, B. Francis (Higher Tranmere) 19; K. Wharton (Manor Road) 21, K. Fraser (Cammell Laird) 14. Semi Finals: Andrews 21, Rowland 03; Wharton 21, Hughes 14. Final: Wharton 21, Andrews 11.

The Merseyside Junior Merit Tournament was played over the weekend and this resulted in a win for a local Wirral Junior player, Daniel Jeffries who plays for Gladstone.

In the final he defeated Halewood's Owen Wilson 21-12.

In the semi finals Jeffries had beaten Ryan Teeling while Wilson had got the better of another Wirral player, Kye Gorman who plays his bowls at Pensby. Daniel Jeffries and Owen Wilson now go on to represent Merseyside in the All England Junior Finals later in the season.

Gladstone players, Daniel Jeffries and John Finch, have now won both the Meseyside Junior Merit and the Merseyside Senior Merit Tournaments this year.

Next Saturday, July 27, four local players will be playing in the All England Senior Finals at Owley Wood in Weaverham. Cheshire, 10am start.

The four players are John Finch (Gladstone), Danny Barwise (Kings 2000), Dave MacDermott (Heswall RBL) and Matthew Gilmore (West Kirby Victoria).

They have qualified by winning tournaments earlier in the season and we wish them well.