Golcar Lib win 2026 Team KO title

Veterans League

Golcar Lib A are the 2026 Veterans League Team Knock-Out Champions after beating Longwood 135-112 in Friday's final at an immaculate Kirkheaton Con playing surface. These two teams between them have won the last five finals of this competition but this is the first time that they have met each other in the Final and this outcome sees the Golcar Lib team taking the lead 3-2 in their separate competition.

Golcar Lib won the toss to determine who selected the running order and they chose to play the pairs games first and that worked out well for them as they won two of the three ties to build a 59-45 lead, extended to 64-45 when the +5 handicap was added. With the aggregate scores determining the winners, it really did mean that every point counted.

The pace was set by the Lowther & Mitchell Golcar duo being the first out of the traps and they built an 8-1 lead after five ends and didn't stop there. Keeping up the pace to run out 21-9 winners and the game was definitely on. When the Golcar Lib skipper Rob Senior & Peter Hopkinson pair opened up a 19-5 lead it looked a big lead was on the cards. However, the Hatzer & Dickinson duo fought back to make it a more respectable 15-21 final score, and the game was on.

Longwood captain Alan Crowther and pairs partner Graham Howe rekindled hopes of closing the gap by winning their match against Hammon & Bolton 21-17 after the scores had been level at 13-13. That saw the teams going in for a 'Hydration Break' with a 19-point gap between them and Longwood needing to win each of the four singles by an average of 5-points if they were to rescue the day and chalk up a third consecutive title success. A tall order for any team.

The Longwood bowler opening the singles for his team was Ian Briggs who is the top rated in the League Division 1 Averages of any of the singles bowlers on the green today. However it was his opponent Rob Morgan who started out strongly opening a 5-0 early lead which became 12-4 then 16-8 before ending a final 21-10 scoreline making the gap between the teams now up to 30-points. Mick Chapman has been having a good season in the Golcar Lib team but had only played one singles match all season. That didn't matter as he ran out a 21-17 winner and the omens are looking uncomfortable for the Longwood team.

Nick Oddy picked up the baton and moved smoothly into an 18-8 lead before David Walkden started a dangerous comeback before finally losing out 19-21. Andy Wike pitched up to claim the only Longwood singles win but even a 21-8 win couldn't claw the difference back with the singles count going 71-67 to Golcar Lib and a 135-112 match score. Congratulations to the Golcar Lib team. The full match scorecard is below along with a selection of action photos from around the green.