Louth Indoor Bowls Club: Men's A team close in on league title

Despite losing on three of the five rinks they secured aggregate victory in a tight finish by 100 shots to 95 thanks to a 13-shot winning margin on the rink comprised of Simon Reeson, Russ Dent, Simon Dent and Barry Mountain.

Colin Smith’s rink won by seven shots, but credit also goes to the other three rinks for keeping their losing margins down to six shots or less. The result put them out of reach of second-placed Long Sutton who are 30 points behind with just one match to play.

But Louth have two matches remaining, home and away against third-placed Sleaford who are 33 points behind with 18 points at stake per match.

* The men’s over 60s team suffered an 86-79 aggregate shots defeat in their county match away to Lincoln C, but still maintained top spot in Division Two.

They lie 23 points ahead of Sleaford and are certain of a top two finish after winning on two rinks at Lincoln. George Willoughby’s rink grabbed single shots on each of the last five ends to win 19-14 and Colin Smith’s rink won 17-12.

* At club level, two more divisional titles were decided last week with Fast Shippers clinching Evening Triples Division Two with a 17-14 win against third-placed EBC.

Meanwhile, Barry Fox and Robin Barrow made sure of the Australian Pairs Division Two title when hanging on to win 14-13 against D. Plane and M. Green.

* At the other extreme Len and Sheila Robinson recorded their first points of a frustrating season in the Tuesday Mixed Pairs when holding Derek Blow and Liz Draper to a 10-10 draw in Division Two.

* There is a very close contest in the Friday Mixed Pairs where three pairs are locked at the top on the same number of points.

Fourth-placed Malcolm Pearce and Rachael Stanley could have joined them, but had to settle for a 14-14 draw with previous leaders Horace Cope and Joan Stones who slipped to third.

The Barrie Robinson and Pat Willoughby pairing took over top spot on shots difference although it was Tony Willoughby who replaced the incapacitated Barrie for the 30-7 win over Tony and Lou Woods.

Harry Putland and Judy Robinson are second after a 22-5 win over Graham Wood and Eileen Rayner.