Spring Bowling 2008

Photos available here

With Easter being at its earliest for 112 years, Esselle Sports, organisers of the 2008 Pontins Spring Festival had a dilemma as to starting dates. The choices available were to start very early on March 16th; clash with many bowlers’ seasons starting by arriving March 30th; or (as was eventually chosen) to take the step of checking into Pontins on Easter Monday, instead of the usual Sunday. It was great to report that the strange starting date had no impact on bookings, as 420 bowlers arrived eager to get their season underway!

The bowlers were saddened on arrival to hear that the North Lancs. and Fylde Referees Society and the Spring Bowls Festival had lost two of its stalwarts in the previous two weeks – Bert Dransfield, past-President of the Society and Coaching luminary, who had been instrumental in helping set up the Pontins Festival format 20 years earlier, and Jack Pawson, regular official for the past 7 – 8 years, instantly recognisable by his ‘Father Christmas’ beard. Both would be very sadly missed, but would surely have been gladdened to see so many bowlers enjoying their favourite sport.

Early morning showers were the norm throughout the week, clearing away in time for the start of play but as all bowlers were to experience morning and afternoon sessions, everyone had the usual mixture of different conditions and different greens on a daily basis. With slightly more Ladies than Men there were 23 qualifying groups for the Ladies and 21 groups in the Mens’ Event.

In the Ladies’ event the field looked wide-open with no previous champions winning their groups, but in the Mens’, seven previous winners made it through to the second stage of the round-robin format. With those coming second in their groups qualifying for the Consolation events, those finishing outside of the top two in the groups of eight or nine bowlers were then invited to enter the Mens or Ladies Plate Pairs events. Before that came around, Thursday was Mixed Pairs day with glorious sunshine, and although the greens were not ‘flying’ by any means, it was certainly a great day to be playing bowls.

Friday saw the Plate Pairs events kick off with more than 40 pairs in both the Mens’ and Ladies’ competitions, whilst the Main and Consolation fields were further whittled down to give up the runners for Finals Day. In the Mens’ Main, 15-year old Jack Hargreaves became the youngest ever Pontins Semi-Finalist in the Mens’ Main – a superb performance, with the highlight being a win over Andy Spragg in the round-robin format. A good week all round for the Hargreaves family as mum Jacqui took the Ladies’ Consolation title!

Finals Day was marred by heavy rain and whilst the Waterloo had looked in good order, it was never going to allow all bowlers to fully show off their abilities when standing water eventually accumulated. Nevertheless, there were still many highlights. The 2007 Mens’ Champions, Mark Garbett, took the Mens’ Consolation title in 2008, whilst Irene Jackson and Robbie Fitzpatrick both made the Mixed Pairs and Main Singles Finals. In the closest final of the day, Festival favourite Andy Spragg fought off a very exciting challenge from Robbie Fitzpatrick 21 – 18 with a very controlled display considering the conditions, whilst Lynne Rimmer bowled superbly to take the Ladies’ event and the £520.00 first prize.

One aspect that will be discussed for the Illuminations Classic at the end of the year is a ‘Ladies only to lead’ rule, (which considering the likelihood of heavy conditions at both the front and back of the season would assist the Ladies to remain competitive), and organiser Steve Rigby will be taking this matter up with his team of Bowls Officials in preparation for this and future events.

RESULTS

LADIES’ PLATE PAIRS

Hannah Needham (Derby) & Mary Cleaver (Belper) 11
Ann Burns (Standish) & Cath Greenwood (Upholland) 8

MENS PLATE PAIRS

Mark Battersby (Timperley) & Paul Arnold (Stockport) 11
Alan Williams & Denis Thorpe (Leigh) 4

LADIES CONSOLATION

Jacqui Hargreaves (Hyde) 11
Ann Burgess (Rochdale) 2

MENS CONSOLATION

Mark Garbett (Hednesford) 11
Geoff Dagless (Leeds) 1

MIXED PAIRS

Robbie Fitzpatrick (Liverpool) & Joan Dewhurst (Heswall) 15
Ian McDade (Preston) & Irene Jackson (Oldham) 5

LADIES MAIN

Lynne Rimmer (Whitworth) 21
Irene Jackson (Oldham) 10

MENS MAIN

Andy Spragg (Chesterfield) 21
Robbie Fitzpatrick (Liverpool) 18

Forms for all other Esselle Bowling events are available by calling 01257 450991 or from here.