Bowls - Competitive battle in Cumbria Merit (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Bowls - Competitive battle in Cumbria Merit

11:09am Monday 11th April 2011 in Sport

THE 2011 Cumbria Merit competition was played on Victoria and Burneside bowling greens, with the highest number of entrants (72) received for many years putting their names in the hat.

Players from both Kendal and Barrow areas combined in this annual competition which sees the winner qualify for the 2011 Portugal Masters and the Champion of Champions event held in Blackpool at the end of the season.

The finalists will also both go on to represent Cumbria in the 2011 All Britain competition.

Martin Gilpin was the first player to qualify from Burneside into the last eight, with a 21-12 victory over Gareth Jones and he was soon joined by Chris Whitehouse, who beat Billy Harding 21-19 in an excellent game.

Meanwhile, at Victoria, John Reilly won 21-17 against the impressive Mark Ashburn and Tonie Moxham defeated Adrian Steele 21-19 to qualify.

The afternoon sessions saw Nigel Burns and Liam Howard get through at Burneside, beating Barry Minshall and David Robinson to 13 and 11 respectively.

At Victoria Ian Nicholson eased through three games to make his way into the last eight, winning 21-6, 21-10 and then 21-6 again against Stewart Turnbull. Barry Christian joined him after impressive victories finishing with the 21-8 defeat of Barry Lowden.

The final eigth of the competition met at Victoria to play the remaining matches and determine the winner later the same day in front of a good crowd.

Ian Nicholson showed again that he was not in the mood to take prisoners as he demolished Barry Christian to 5.

He would play John Reilly in the semi-final after John edged his way past Tonie Moxham 21-19. Martin Gilpin and Liam Howard would meet in the other semi-final after eliminating Chris Whitehouse and Nigel Burns to 15 and 16 respectively.

The semi-final matches were both played at an extremely high standard and could have gone either way.

Martin Gilpin finished off well to get past the defending champion, Liam Howard 21-17, and become the first player to get to the final, but it was the other game that the crowd was concentrating on as John Reilly and Ian Nicholson battled it out to 20-20, resulting in one end deciding who would progress.

Ian led out and stood game with just one bowl remaining but John Reilly played with weight and took the jack through in order to reach the final.

It looked like the epic match from the semi-final really affected John Reilly as Martin Gilpin took early control of the final and managed to get to 20-9 quickly and comfortably.

He was, however, made to work hard for his final point as John Reilly rallied and came back to 15 before finally conceding the victory to an excellent bowl from Martin.