15 Sep Over 70s Pairs Final – results and photo gallery

 

DEREK FROST and MICK WENZEL head off the challenge of Waterloo’s Alan Stephenson and Robert Mudd to claim the Over 70’s Pairs Trophy at Lowerhouses.

The pair, who play for David Browns Sports in Division 5 of the Huddersfield Veterans ten-man league competition and for Crosland Moor in the six-man league, were worthy winners after being handed a tough route to the final.

Previous winners Denis Garner and Paul Winterburn (+2) were beaten in a tight affair by Frost and Wenzel (+4) in their quarter-final tie, winning 21-19.

Quarter finalist Barry Gibson advised that his partner Stephen Addy was too poorly to attend but Barry agreed to donate the prize money to Kirkwood Hospice and donated another substantial sum. That meant that Les Holmes and Graham Hirst, who both bowl at Lowerhouses, were the pair facing Frost & Wenzel in the semi-final.

On the other side of the draw Marsh United’s Chris North and Ken Roys had a +4 handicap start but didn’t fair very well at the hands of two inter-district players, Cowcliffe’s David Pollard and Derek Hewitt (scratch) who finished 21-12 winners to progress to the semi-finals.

Also heading for the semi-finals were Robert Mudd and Alan Stephenson, with a +2 handicap, and one half of the pair that won the Pairs trophy earlier in the season. They played two current inter-district players in Alan Bamforth and Peter Kain (playing off scratch) in what was a tight match, winning by three and not needing the handicap.

Holmes and Hirst were off scratch in their semi-final due to them being homesters but the pair never got going and Frost and Wenzel continued their fine form from the quarters, winning 21-12. Likewise inter-district players Pollard and Hewitt played off scratch but looked out of form winning only six of the 22 ends including three counts of three as they were defeated 21-13 by Mudd and Stephenson.

Both finalists had looked unstoppable throughout the tournament winning the semis comfortably but Frost and Wenzel spotted a weakness on the Mudd-Stephenson game and raced to a 15-5 lead. However, after only another seven ends the first division duo pulled the score back to 17 across courtesy of a four, three, one and two two’s and it was squeaky bum time for the Division 5 pair but they just clinched it with a couple of ones and a two.

Richard Armitage thanked the referee Pat Stephenson who volunteered to step down in the final as hubby was playing but Derek Frost and Mick Wenzel graciously accepted Pat refereeing.

It was another superb final in the Huddersfield Veterans Bowling Association calendar with a good number of spectators being well looked after by host club Lowerhouses. They supported the players and referee in fine style with measurers always on hand, and a warm brew always available in the clubhouse.