Louth Indoor Bowls: Magpies steal a march in Triples League

But with two teams having two games it meant a change in the order, with Magpies hopping on to the top perch.

Their trio of George and Gill Chesman with Neil Castle enjoyed a comfortable 21-6 win over bottom team Lightning before Martin and Linda Oldfield with Mike Norton followed by beating Hornets 19-5.

The two wins put them one point ahead of Yorkies who did just enough to beat In A Minute 14-9 and then cruised to a 23-2 win over Wasps.

The third and fourth-placed teams only had one game, against each other, with honours going to Highgate Wanderers in the 21-15 win over The Jays. The result gave the victors third spot on shots difference and saw their opponents slip from first to fourth, underlining how close the scrap is. Highlight of the week, however, was Lightning’s 11-10 win against Dreamers. After 17 defeats in a row their team of Ron Houghton with Mike and Linda Todd hung on for well-earned win.

It still left them bottom of the table, but just one point behind Hornets who were beaten 16-10 by Dreamers.

Another interesting game saw Two Plus One beat Mudlarks 17-16. The eventual winners fell behind early on, but recovered to lead 15-8 and were then pegged back to 16-16 before the last-end victory.

* In the Australian Pairs, Group A leaders Tony Powell and Liz Draper were given a tough time by Peter and Gill Fletcher.

They trailed 10-5 before winning the remaining four ends for a 12-10 victory which keeps them top thanks to a better shots difference than Brian and Bernice Culham who also had a tough game against Richard and Sylvia Foulds.

The Foulds were leading 12-6, but were hit for six on the next end and never recovered as the Culhams went on to win 16-12.

Two points further back are Vic Ball and Mike Norton who eased to a 24-5 win over Audrey Winn and stand-in partner Derek Woodforth.

It’s a similar scenario at the top of Group B with Paul Hayman and Ian Bertram beating F. and J. Bradley 27-5 to stay top on shots difference from John Williams and Joan Foster.

They beat Noel and June Brougham 20-11 thanks to a six when the score was at 13-10.

* The winter league fixtures are almost complete and the sheets will be available by next Tuesday, but the schedules should now be on the club’s website along with the dates of the county matches.