Houghton's Inter Club promotion hopes are on the line

Members of the Dawdon bowls club with some of the new equipment.

At Houghton, the home squad ran out 57-53 winners, Ian Whorlton steered his rink of Trevor Joicey, R.Johnson and Richard Thorpe to a 23-15 win over A.Bolam.

The second home win came from John Doyle, C.Wallace, Tom Patterson and J.Biggerstaff, who recovered from 8-1 down to beat John Layfield 18-12.

The remaining rink of Mal Baker, Sam Patterson, David Wright and Brian Henderson went down 26-16 to Alan Musgrove, which left the home squad four shots in credit, while collecting four vital points.

Sadly at Durham, things went astray as all three rink went down, Jimmy McAdoo’s rink led 10-4, but a 6-18 return over the second half sealed a 22-16 defeat at the hands of J.Burnip.

Joe Sutherland, Dave Armstrong, John Godfrey and Alan J Dunn were beaten 33-5 by C.Stevenson and Keith Waterson.

Fred Sanderson, Fred Fletcher and Tom Burt were beaten 30-8 by David Christie.

Houghton’s final game against unbeaten The Parks has been rearranged for April 3. Houghton now need to beat The Parks 8-4 to steal a promotion spot from Durham.

Latest Table: Durham 5-37, Houghton 4-34, The Parks 3-32½, Shildon 4- 24½, Spennymoor 4-9, Ferryhill 4-7 .

Houghton Ladies ended their season on a losing note as they beaten 137-87 by Great Aycliffe.

Only Joan Rogerson recorded a victory 23-20 over A.Ritchie, while Ellen Faith and Betty Johnson lost.

Down the A1 at Aycliffe, the away squad were well beaten by 39 shots.

There was some good news for South Shields’ Mal Peach, Gary Farquhar and David Bolt as they secured a place at the National Triples Championships in April after negotiating the regional play-off finals at Durham.

In the quarter-final, Shields’ triple defeated Selby’s Roger Wood 19-12 before securing a championship berth with a 19-10 win over Stanley’s Michael Laydon.

The other place went to Stanley’s Ian Peacock, Gary Robson and Dave Webb.

The regional finals in fours competition takes place at Darlington today, with two qualifying places at stake.

Area one: (skips only) Ian Mcintosh (Shields), Ian Riches (Shields) and Clive Knott (West Denton). Area three: Vinnie O’Neill (Redcar) and Andrew Kirtland (Darlington). Area four: Dave Cowsill (Featherstone) and Roger Wood (Selby).

Durham County’s Liberty Trophy squad remain on course for a 12th Liberty title after an impressive 33-shot win over Suffolk in the semi-final at Newark.

The early exchanges saw a youthful Suffolk team take an early lead, but Durham eased to a 33-shot win.

Durham won on four of the six rinks, thanks to Paul Mosley, Andrew Kirtland, Gary Smith and Phil Smithson.

With Hartlepool’s Paul Hartley unavailable, Marc Squirrell stepped in as skip and after trailing 20-4, fought back to draw 22-22, the only defeat saw David Bolt’s quartet go down 26-20.

In the final at Melton Mowbray, they will face Kent, who defeated Northamptonshire 116-94.

Darlington hosted the semi-finals of the Over-60s Premier League, which were contested by Darlington A, Stanley, Darlington B and Gateshead.

The Darlington squads were paired against each other with the B team running out 21-13 winners, while Stanley defeated Gateshead 19-14 to clinch a final spot.

The final takes place Thursday, at Ferryhill, starting at 12.30pm.

Darlington Indoor Bowls club hit the headlines this week off the green when it was revealed that the now cash strapped local council could end up paying £625,000 in rent due to a long legally binding agreement.

Back in 1981 the vibrant indoor bowls club and the local council signed a 60-year contract, whereby the council would pay the £25,000 a year rent to landowner Morrison’s, up to 2041, with the bowls club repaying as much as it could afford currently around 50%.

Over recent years, the club has seen its membership numbers drop, but they have been an important part of the community having hosted National Championship finals and Home International Series which in turn bought national publicity and vital cash boosts to the local area.

There was some good news for Dawdon Welfare Park Bowls club, as for the first time, they have received a £2,000 grant.

The award has come from the Durham County Council Community Foundation, with support from the Comic Relief 2015 Community Grant scheme.

The Dawdon club will use the funding to try and raise the club’s profile within the community and local schools, they have already used part of the fund to purchase new scoreboards and bowls gatherers.