Shepley Bowler wins Rose Bowl

Veterans League

FINAL SCORECARD

John Hodgson is the 2025 Veterans League Rose Bowl winner after beating Andy Wike 21-18 in the Final at Netherton Con yesterday. I am not being disrespectful when I say that John is a surprise winner of this most prestigious of individual competitions in the Veterans League calendar. John was the outsider in all three rounds he played on Finals Day yesterday as he faced three top bowlers from Division 1 teams to lift the trophy.

All his opponents finished the 10-Man League season in the Top 20 Division 1 singles bowlers listing, whilst John plays for Division 2 team Shepley. He had a +4 handicap advantage and the fact that he was the best Winter League Division 6 singles bowler last season based at Netherton Con should not be levied as the reason for his success this week on that same green.

He may have been the serial outsider but he showed by his display that he can mix it with the best that the League has to offer. In the quarter-finals, John came up against the competition favourite and two-time winner of the title, Lowerhouses bowler Graham Hirst. Graham was trying for a third success in this competition, never acheived before. He has been in good competition form all season winning the Over-70's KO and also lifting the Over-70's Pairs KO as well as being a key member of the Division 1 title winning team.

John fought back from being 13-19 down to eke out the closest of results to win the final end to clinch a 21-20 win and a place in the semi-finals.

Next up was Inter-District stalwart and Clayton West bowler, Tim Poulter. Tim had won his quarter-final against competition sponsor Paul Rangeley 21-17 after leading almost the whole game but his match against the eventual Champion was very different.

John raced into a 12-5 lead after 9 ends but Tim fought back to bring the match to a fitting climax after levelling the scores at 19-across. An untypical pair of short responses from Tim left John clear with a 21-19 win to push him through to the final. Here he met Longwood bowler Andy Wike who had seen off Robert Mudd of Waterloo by 21-14 in his semi-final.

The final was a clash of two different styles with John using the full diagonal of the green to great effect whilst Andy favoured the shorter pegging mark which had proved so effective for him in the previous two rounds. Andy started strongly producing 5 pairs in the first 9 ends to stand 12-6 ahead. However John fought back to win 13 of the next 14 ends to lead 20-13. Andy wasn't finished collecting another 5 points from three ends before John's persistence with the long mark paid off to produce another pair to clinch the match and the title 21-19.

A great Finals Day on a green that was a credit to the greenkeeper and will be in weekly use for the fourth successive season as the Winter League Division 6 host green. Whoever says that winter bowling is spoiling summer greens really needs to take a look at the Netherton green. The end of the Veterans League season finished with a great climax displaying everything about bowling that we all savour.

Well done to John on his first-ever competition win. He told me after the match that a teammate had told him that he had to wait until he was in his 60's before claiming his first ever competition victory. John intends going back to his teammate to tell him that he had just collected his first ever competition win when he is in his 70's and what a day it was as well.

As well as taking the title, trophy and cash prize John also won a place in the Huddersfield Champion-of-Champions competition to be staged at Milnsbridge BC tomorrow from 1.00pm. John joins two other Veterans League competition winners, Graham Hirst (Over-70's KO) and Andy Wike (John Hoyle Trophy) in the 16-man line-up.

Coming up later is a photoshoot of action shots from on and around the green on Finals Day.

Scroll down here for all the Finals Day scorecards and round-by-round results.

Finals Day at Netherton Con

Thursday 2 October

Quarter-Finals

Paul Hartley 12-21 Andy Wike

Robert Mudd 21-15 Gordon Walker

Tim Poulter 21-17 Paul Rangeley

John Hodgson 21-20 Graham Hirst

Semi-Finals 

Andy Wike 21-14 Robert Mudd Tim Poulter 19-21 John Hodgson

Final 

Andy Wike 18-21 John Hodgson

THE FOUR QUARTER-FINAL SCORECARDS

THE TWO SEMI-FINAL SCORECARDS