By David Taylor

Last updated at 14:45, Thursday, 17 February 2011

The area final of the pairs took place at Carlisle on Saturday when John Bell and Andrew Baxter took on Paul Barlow and Stephen Farish.

It proved to be a competitive final though the standard was not perhaps quite as high as was anticipated. Barlow and Farish, the younger pair, had the advantage in the early stages of this all-Wigton affair but led by just three at the halfway mark.

From then on, however, they maintained and extended that advantage eventually getting home 21-11.

They will now represent Cumbria at the national finals at Melton Mowbray early in April and will be hoping to repeat not only the success of Neil Karge and Mark Nanson last year but also their own personal success back in 2006.

The Mixed Pairs finals commenced at Northampton last Friday and Cumbria IBC was represented by Janice Gower and Iain McLean.

They faced a tough task against Kylie Hampton and Barry Jenkins of the Egham Club and the task proved just beyond them as they went down 20-16.

The Mixed Fours finals commenced yesterday and Cumbria was represented by Jackie Bewley, Eleanor Gass, John Wills and Gavin Taylor. Their first game was against Mark Todd of Beccles .

National Top Club

Cumbria Indoor Bowls Club still has one chance of team success and its players will travel to Stanley IBC on Saturday to meet York for a place in the National Finals at Torquay in March.

The Top Club consists of Ladies and Gents Two Wood Singles, a Mixed Pairs, a Mixed Triples and a Mixed Fours.

The scoring is two points for each of the two singles and four points for each of the other three disciplines. Cindy Edmondson and John Crozier will play the singles, Karen Edmondson and David McManus the mixed pairs.

Jackie Wilson, Alan Carruthers and Anthony Little will again contest the mixed triples and Sylvia Clark, Eleanor Gass, Jim Morris and David Taylor will play in the mixed fours.

Friendly Match

Cumbria IBC’s annual fixture against The Dumfriesshire Ex-Presidents Association took place on Sunday and resulted in a good win for the home side.

Simon Kerridge and Sal Panico had excellent wins for the home side while Eddie McGarr won by seven. There were draws for Paul Campbell and Alex Graham and the home side’s only loser was Brian Bryden.

Outdoor Bowls

Though few people will be thinking about outdoor bowls just yet most clubs will be opening in nine or ten weeks and the draws for the county competitions were all made recently.

As expected now there has been a reduction in entries in three of the four main disciplines.

The singles which commences on May 28 has gone down from 89 to 83, the pairs which commences on June 11th is down from 115 to 103.

The triples is down from 75 to 73 and commences June 8th but the fours sees a welcome rise going up from 46 to 48 and commences June 13th. Looking at the overall trends both in Cumbria and nationally these figure are not at all bad.

County Indoor Association

The future of the Association remains in the balance. Following discussions involving the three remaining members of the Executive Committee the decision was taken that there would be no entries in any of the national team events unless new faces came forward to accept responsibility for the administration of these events.

To date no new names have been forthcoming and it now seems likely unless they materialise soon that Cumbria will not be represented in the Liberty Trophy, Over-60 Inter County League or the Under-25 Double Rink.

For whatever reason the Indoor County Association has never quite captured the imagination of Cumbria bowlers in the way that the Denny Cup did.

In the mid-90s the team did well winning the trophy in 1992, 1995 and being beaten finalists in 1997. The 1992 team was a very young side and marked the upsurge in Cumbria fortunes for the next fifteen or so years.

Since 1995 however there has been no success and the amount of travelling and the cost in terms of both time and money has blunted the appetite of Cumbria bowlers.

Added to these problems I feel that the National Association does not really appreciate the problems which counties at the extremities of the country face.

Together these factors seem likely to bring a close to Cumbria’s county exploits for the time being at least.

First published at 11:45, Thursday, 17 February 2011
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk