Wanstead Central bowlers enjoy busy and successful week

The club had two teams in the County Senior Fours vying for a place in the semi-finals at Essex County, with Colin Foster, Moosa Patel, Len Welton and Ken Spicer winning 17-13 at Chelmsford.

And Phil Joslin, Chris Dennis, Bill Nelson and Paco Rodriquez travelled to Bournemouth Park, Southend and rallied from 9-1 down to win 17-14.

Fortunately, they were not drawn against each other in the last four on Saturday when, with winds gusting up to 55 miles an hour, conditions were not ideal.

Foster, Patel, Welton and skip Spicer faced a strong Silver End team including Essex two-wood champion Karl Lodge and played well throughout, leading for the majority and winning 19-11

The same could not be said for Joslin, Dennis, Nelson and Rodriquez who met a four from Essex County on their own rink and were soon 8-2 down.

It could have been more were it not for the fine bowling of skip Rodriquez but at 13-5 down after 11 ends things did not look good for Central.

On the penultimate end, Central picked up four shots to move 16-14 up and only dropped one on the final end to come away 16-15 winners to set up an all-Central final on July 29.

Central also had a team in the semi-final of the County Fours in the afternoon, when Colin Jones, Foster, Peter Barham and Paul Woodford played a team from Romford and put in a very strong performance in tricky weather conditions.

After eight ends they were 7-5 down but came back to lead 13-9 after 14 ends and eventually came away with a 20-10 victory. They play a team from Kings Chase, Brentwood in the final and have qualified to play in the Bowls England National Finals at Leamington Spa.

Woodford and Fitzgerald also qualified for Leamington Spa in the National over-55 pairs, beating Terry Brown and partner from Kings Chase 18-16 in the Essex South area final.

It was also a busy week for Wanstead Central’s women, who met Clockhouse in the County Top Club competition, but had to battle a tricky Haynes Park green in very windy conditions.

Central lost the singles, pairs and fours but the triple of Chris Buck, Karen Ryan and Carol Beesley put in a strong performance to win 18-8.

The county semi-finals were held at Tiptree on Sunday and Central competed in the fours, senior fours and triples.

Cheryl Rayner, Jackie Barham Holt, Janice Fortune and Maureen Norgate were beaten 24-9 in the fours by a strong team from Holland-on-Sea, while Karen Ryan, Wendy Gray and Jackie Lee dropped shots at vital times and lost 17-10 to Clockhouse in the triples.

And Rayner, Barham Holt, Fortune and Norgate were in action again in the afternoon in the senior fours, losing 20-9 to Springhouse.