06 Aug 2026 Pairs Final – Three rounds to glory.

The beauty of a Finals Day is that it strips away all the nonsense.

League averages? Forget them. Form books? Worth about as much as last week’s weather forecast. Reputation? Completely irrelevant.

One day, three rounds. Win all three and someone hands you a trophy. Lose one and you spend the journey home inventing increasingly imaginative reasons why you should have won. That’s it. No appeals. No second chances. Just brutal, wonderfully uncomplicated sport.

And if anyone thinks crown green bowling lacks drama, they clearly weren’t at Almondbury Liberal Club for the 2026 Pairs Finals.

Eight pairings arrived with varying degrees of confidence. Some looked like men expecting to collect silverware. Others looked delighted simply to have made it this far. By teatime there was only one partnership left standing: Lockwood Con’s Peter Kain and Gerard Clarke. But getting there was anything but routine.

Finals Days, especially Pairs, have their own peculiar rhythm. Early on it’s about settling the nerves. Then it becomes a test of judgement, attack or defend, gamble or consolidate. By the final, it’s usually won by the pair who simply play the green better than everyone else.

Kain had been here before. He lifted this very trophy back in 2015. Eleven years later, alongside new partner Clarke, he returned looking like a man who hadn’t forgotten how.

Their quarter-final against the Longwood duo of Alan Crowther and David Walkden was never flashy. It didn’t need to be. They settled quickly, established control and, every time their opponents hinted at a comeback, calmly shut the door again. A 21-15 victory doesn’t sound spectacular. That’s because it wasn’t. It was something rather more dangerous: efficient.

Next came the 2024 Pairs champions, Waterloo’s Ian Lunn and Alan Stephenson, who had edged past Lindley Lib’s Mick Ward and Bob Booth 21-19 in a proper scrap.

It looked a fascinating contrast. Lunn and Stephenson preferred to stretch the game from corner to corner. Kain and Clarke were happier working over the crown, a little shorter and with relentless accuracy. Different playbook. Same objective.

Seven ends in, the Waterloo pair were 8-7 ahead. Then the match quietly changed shape.

Kain and Clarke reclaimed the jack and suddenly started collecting ends with the sort of efficiency that drains belief from the opposition. Eight of the next ten went their way as they surged into a 19-10 lead. Lunn and Stephenson refused to disappear quietly, producing some excellent bowls to delay the inevitable, but only delay it. Five ends later Kain and Clarke completed a commanding 21-13 win and marched into the final looking every bit the pair to beat.

While all that was happening, the other half of the draw was busy producing something altogether more spicey.

Ian Johnsey and Leon Wilczynski began against their own Kirkheaton Con clubmates, Garry Senior and Andy Lumb, last year’s runners-up. Handicaps are funny things. Johnsey and Wilczynski’s eight-point start sounds luxurious until the chasing pair begin eating into it one end at a time.

After seven ends the lead had shrunk to just three points. Hushed whispers in the crowd, knowing nods. Momentum was building – an irresistible force taking control.

Except it didn’t.

Johnsey and Wilczynski sensed exactly what was happening and responded with their best spell of the game. Suddenly everything they attempted seemed to work. Senior and Lumb barely had time to realise what was happening before the scoreboard read 21-14 and the underdogs had a semi-final.

Waiting for them were defending champions Ashley Daykin and Andy Mitchell, comfortable 21-11 winners over the Netherton Con pairing of Paul Rangeley and Graham Brook.

Now here’s the thing, the Lowerhouses’ pair were playing off -2. Giving away ten on handicap is certain to raise eyebrows. Champions, however, tend not to concern themselves with such details. Focused, ruthless – four opening ends, four doubles. Three more ends, 10-9 up and cruising.

You could almost hear the door creaking shut on Johnsey and Wilczynski’s afternoon.

The scoreboard suggested one story. The bowls that followed wrote another.

Johnsey and Wilczynski suddenly found another level. Four successive scoring ends produced five priceless points and, more importantly, belief. From there they played with a freedom that only comes when doubt has packed its bags and left. Whatever the holders produced, they answered. Winning nine of the final twelve ends, they completed a stunning 21-15 victory that nobody could argue with.

Which left us with a final few had seen coming.

On one side stood the fairy tale pairing who had beaten club-mates and defending champions. On the other stood the quiet professionals who had gone about dismantling everyone placed in front of them.

It’s the sort of contest that makes predictions look foolish.

Kain and Clarke, however, had no interest in prolonging the suspense.

From the off Kain’s leading over the crown was absurdly precise on a green that punished even the smallest mistake, made trickier still by an afternoon sun that had quickened the pace. Clarke needed no encouragement to cash in whenever opportunities appeared. They never overplayed, never forced the issue and, perhaps most impressively, never allowed Johnsey and Wilczynski anywhere near the areas of the green that had served them so well earlier in the day.

The underdogs kept searching. They never stopped asking questions.

The trouble was, Kain and Clarke already had all the answers.

A 21-13 victory secured the title and completed a Finals Day that saw them grow stronger, calmer and more convincing with each game they played.

As the afternoon slid into evening a well entertained crowd slowly drifted home. With them were four bowlers. One pair left Almondbury carrying the trophy. The other left having written themselves into Finals Day folklore.

Our thanks go to match referee Ray Tunnacliffe, Almondbury Liberal Club for their generous sponsorship and for providing an excellent green and first-class facilities, and to Competition Secretary Paul English, whose hard work behind the scenes makes days like this happen in the first place.

 

 

 

 

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