Andrews produces assured display in flyer event (From Wirral Globe)

Andrews produces assured display in flyer event

2:13pm Tuesday 20th November 2012 in Bowls By Bill Atkinson

ON yet another sunny morning in Birkenhead Park Tixall's Mick Andrews reasserted his authority on this series of Sunday Flyers competitions.

By defeating Gladstone's Joe Edwards in a close final he moved further ahead in the points table.

In the quarter-finals, Andrews had to beat one of those players who is always a threat, Queen's Royals Eddie Dutton, before having an excellent win over the in-form John Jones.

Edwards, giving one of his best ever displays in these tournaments, had beaten a previous winner Colin Strowbridge of Kings 2000 in the quarters and he then held on to just pip Our Ladys Vic Alcock in the semi-finals.

Edwards had his chances to take the final but a few poor leads cost him the game and, for the third time this year, Andrews won the top prize.

Results:

Quarter-finals: J Jones 21, R Lewis 12; M Andrews 21, Dutton 14; J Edwards 21, C Strowbridge 15; V Alcock 21, S Ward 19.

Semi-finals: Andrews 21, Jones 15; Edwards 21, Alcock 18. 

Final: Andrews 21, Edwards 18.

With this win Andrews has established a big lead in the points table with Nick Thornton and John Jones in second and third places.

There is increasing concern in the bowling world as the news of the proposed council cuts becomes more clear.

The worst case scenario would be a devastating blow to all of us and we must do all we can to try and prevent this from happening.

Bowlers must join with anybody who has a love of the parks and gardens, and indeed all the open spaces on the Wirral, to reject outright the proposal to savagely cut the maintenance budget.

If the council's chief executive really wants us to "take tough decisions together" we need to let him know our feelings by taking the time to fill in the questionnaire being published, on the local authority website wirral.gov.uk

The two questions pertaining to parks and open spaces come in section B: Regeneration and Environment; and there is also the opportunity to give a more detailed response to the proposals.

Maybe we need to question why the facilities for a sport played by several thousand of Wirral's residents and which also gives the elderly the opportunity to remain active and healthy could be devastated.