Thorpe Green duo lift Pairs KO title

Winter League

Robert Hitchen presents the Pairs KO Trophy to Ian Briggs and Andy Wike, the 2026 winners

Ian Briggs and Andy Wike completed a good year for Thorpe Green A when adding the Pairs KO title to the trophy cabinet on Friday. That complemented the earlier capture of a third consecutive Division 1 Champions title. But it was far from plain-sailing for the eventual Pairs KO winners with an epic final ahead of them.

Finals Day saw a good crowd assemble around the Thorpe Green playing surface with plenty of hot and cold food available to keep the punter's happy. Unfortunately the day began with the withdrawal of the Meltham A pair with overnight illness resulting in a bye for their Meltham B club mates pair of Andy Pearson and John Sanderson.

The quarter-finals went very much with the form book as the three matches were all won by the higher-placed pairings. That saw the two Division 1 pairs and the Division 2 pair from New Mill B of Stuart Greaves and John Belfield progress to the semi-finals. It was there that they met up with the eventual Champions who used their trademark corner-to-corner game to good effect as their opponents couldn't match the accuracy of their long game, few can.

With the other Division 1 pair of Steven Lowther and Nigel Mitchell (Golcar Lib), drawn in the other half of the draw it always seemed destined to be a first all-Division 1 Final and so it proved. Both finalists recorded single-figure wins over their opponents to set up a top-team versus bottom-team Division 1 Final. It is a mystery to me that Golcar Lib have finished bottom of the Division 1 table for a second time in three years when they have the calibre of bowlers within their ranks as displayed at Thorpe Green on Friday. That mystery was given further substance to by the performance of their two representatives in the Final.

Both sets of pairs started on a minus handicap and Lowther and Mitchell had a poor start to the Final when their opponents won the toss to take the jack and move immediately to begin their long mark approach to the proceedings. This resulted in a 6-0 lead for Briggs and Wike after five ends and as all matches in this competition are of 15-Ends or 21-Up depending on which comes first, a third of the Final has been completed without the Lowther/Mitchell pair scoring at all.

That start may have cost the Golcar Lib pair dearly but undismayed they fought back and used their shorter game over the crown to good effect and were only 9-10 down after 13 ends. A good recovery and against lesser opponents could have been the foothold to launch a winning run-in to the end of the match. However the 14th end proved to be the pivotal mark in the contest with the Briggs / Wike pair regaining the jack to set a long mark into the corner of the green in front of the clubhouse where the majority of spectators had assembled in full expectation of a good climax to the Final. They were not to be disappointed.

The Golcar Lib pair raised their game and with both pairs having played three woods were sat with three chalks lined up on a congested end of five of the woods hiding the jack and no easy route through to the target. Andy Wike had the ultimate challenge in front of him. With the prospect of going two-down in the match and their opponents holding the jack going into the final end looked like a daunting prospect, heneeded a shot of unbelievable accuracy to find a route that few could forecast and none others could have realised.

However cometh the hour cometh the man and from somewhere deep in his repotoire of shots Andy rooted out a wood that somehow negotiated the short bowl hazards like a vagabond running through a jungle and avoiding all the trips along the way to come to rest alongside the jack to win the end and save the day. A round of spontaneous applause broke out to greet the owner of that wood as he joined his partner in preparation for the final end. As Robert Hitchen said in his presentation talk, this was the Bowl of the Day and no-one could dispute that.

The contribution of the two losers made to the final was immense and victory would have come much quicker to lesser opponents but the day belonged to the Thorpe Green pairing with Briggsie recalling the fact that he had now realised the full set of honours that the League can bestow on any one individual. For as well as the day's Pairs KO title and the hat-trick of Division 1 team titles he was also the 2023 winner of the League' Winter Cup individual knock-out competition. A full set indeed.

The competition started out with 93 pairs entered (186 bowlers) a record number for the League and probably for most leagues anywhere nowadays. When you recall that we offer no cash prizes to entice bowlers to enter, as the main beneficiary of the League's existence is to help bring some financial security to some bowling clubs with many struggling to survive a winter with little or no income. Days like this remind us all of that and make everything worthwhile.

All of the day's results with the Final scorecard alongside.

Quarter-Finals

Andrew Pearson & John Sanderson (Meltham B) - Bye

Barry Gibson & Steve Addy (Meltham A) - withdrawn

Keith Hanley & Tom Chatfield (Slaithwaite) 8

Andy Wike & Ian Briggs (Thorpe Green A) 19

Stuart Greaves & John Belfield (New Mill B) 16

Billie Beattie & David Blackburn (Thorpe Green C) 7

David Ashworth & Lynn Rynham (Cowcliffe B) 9

Steven Lowther & Nigel Mitchell (Golcar Lib) 15

Semi-Finals

Andrew Pearson & John Sanderson (Meltham B) 6

Andy Wike & Ian Briggs (Thorpe Green A) 19

Stuart Greaves & John Belfield (New Mill B) 5 Steven Lowther & Nigel Mitchell (Golcar Lib) 15

FINAL

Andy Wike & Ian Briggs (Thorpe Green A) 12

Steven Lowther & Nigel Mitchell (Golcar Lib) 9