Wilson pipped to 4th Lindley title

Club News

The Lindley BC £2,000 Knock-Out title has gone to Lancashire as Preston bowler Owen Jackson beat three-times winner Graeme Wilson 21-15 in a rain-drenched final on Friday night.

Despite incessant rain all day a decent crowd turned up for the final of the £2000 competition and they were treated to some fine bowling on a good surface seriously slowed down by the elements. It started raining heavily for an hour before the start of play and rarely threatened to ease up with any determination right through proceedings but the green withstood the best that the elements could throw at it and performed well with no surface water apparent. However that only presented a different surface to any seen in the qualifying rounds so all the finalists had to learn again what would work for them.

The two local bowlers to reach Finals Night both suffered early defeats going down to the two finalists with Josh Brown (Kirkheaton Con) going down 21-11 to Graeme Wilson and Craig Gant (Thongsbridge) losing 21-12 to Owen Jackson who was a 9/2 chance for the title.

In the Final things were very even as they scored 10 apiece before Jackson raced into an 18-10 lead. Wilson then pulled it back to 15-18 and then led a two-foot bowl only for Jackson to put two inside it and then finish with a single at the next end.

Mrs Lorna Briggs, Lindley Bowling Club President, along with John Allen, organiser, presented the prizes with £600 going to the winner and £300 to the runner-up.

ALL THE SCORES

First round:

Neil Slattery (Halifax) 21-20 Chris Kelly (Sheffield)

Josh Brown (Kirkheaton Con) 11-21 Graeme Wilson (Audenshawe)

Craig Gant (Thongsbridge) 12-21 Owen Jackson (Preston)

Gareth Coates (Ackroyd Victoria) 21-11 Dan Sillitoe (Doncaster)

Semi-Finals:

Slattery 10 Wilson 21

Coates 20 Jackson 21

Final:

Wilson 15 Jackson 21