Louth Indoor Bowls Club: Triples league becomes two-horse race

Highgate had comfortable wins over Hornets (22-8) and Busy Bs (17-6) which kept them within two points of leaders Yorkies with three games to play.

Yorkies powered to a 24-6 win over bottom team Lightning and eased to a 24-7 victory against Two Plus One. The Jays also enjoyed a comfortable win over Lightning and also beat Two Plus One 14-10 to stay in third, but can only now aim for second place.

Fourth-placed Magpies have lost their form at a vital time and suffered a 22-2 trouncing by an inspired In A Minute trio of Stuart Robinson, Lydia Seward and Gordon Sharples. They are assured of a top-four finish, however, with Two Plus One nine points behind with three games left.

* There will be a close finish in Group A of the Australian Pairs.

Mike Norton and Paul Smith took over at the top on shots difference thanks to a solid 26-4 win over Brian and Bernice Culham who will now have to settle for third.

Tony Powell and Liz Draper are second, eight shots adrift, with each pair having one game remaining.

The best game in the group saw bottom pair Mo Dewar and Audrey Winn unlucky to lose 15-14 against Derek Blow and Pauline Thornton.

Paul Hayman and Ian Bertram beat Chuck Rose and Martin Oldfield 17-10 to win Group B thanks to a far superior shots difference than John Williams and Joan Foster who ended with a 14-11 win against Barry Jordan and Pat Morley.

The top two in each group go into the play-offs to determine the overall champions.

* The winter league fixtures begin on Monday, September 12, but winter opening hours begin on September 5 for practice sessions.

New rules for the winter season will see the ‘re-spot’ come into play across all leagues. Also, teams will not be allowed to share points for cancelled games which are not re-arranged.