Victoria Bowling Club’s Margaret Hillman led a stirring comeback against St Andrews.

VICTORIA secured a win against St Andrews in a mixed league match with a stirring comeback to avenge an earlier defeat to St Andrews in the first leg of the RWT Triples competition.

Victoria were defeated on all three away rinks, but produced an excellent team win at home, with the rink of Lee Stocker, Pete Newport and skip Mike Stocker winning by 10 shots.

In the mixed league match, Victoria were 11 shots in deficit following the two away results. The home rink of Darren Beard, Rita Bailey, Ellen Newport and Mike Stocker won by three shots to reduce that deficit to eight.

It was left to the rink of Carol Webb, Pete Wyatt, Graham Richards and Margaret Hillman to rescue the match and they got off to a poor start and were soon losing 9-1, but Hillman coaxed the team to come back to levelling the scores at 13-13 on the 13th end and from there to end of the match scored nine shots without reply to secure an exciting match win of just one shot.

This result was a victory for the perseverance of vice-captain Harrison Whyte, who had spent several hours raising the team due to unavailability of several players. Victoria were defeated in the first round of the SCIBA Inter Club Double Fours competition by Puriton. Victoria lost the away match by 10 shots and despite the best efforts of the home rink of John Newman, Phil Fisher, Dave Fairhurst and skip Mike Stocker, they were unable to retrieve the deficit.

Victoria 59, St Andrews 58 (Weston Mixed League) – home: D Beard, R Bailey, E Newport, M Stocker 15-12; C Webb, P Wyatt, G Richards, M Hillman Victoria 22-13. Away: H Whyte, C Stevens, S Newman, M Campbell 12-16; N Whyte, L Kelly, R Cleeves, M Taylor 10-17.

Victoria 60, St Andrews 87 (RWT Cup first leg) – away: D Beard, G Richards, M Taylor 16-20; P Wyatt, R Rocket, D Sealey 12-18; R Hollier, J Newman, D Hurst 11-38. Home: L Stocker, P Newport, M Stocker 21-11.

Victoria 28, Puriton 39 (Double Fours) – away: P Wyatt, M Taylor, D Hurst, B Stock. Victoria 14-24. Home: J Newman, P Fisher, D Fairhurst, M Stocker 14-15.

CLARENCE are still looking for their first win in the Weston Mixed Indoor League.

They lost by 14 shots to Woodspring, despite an eight-shot away victory by David Stott’s rink. The other away rink, skipped by Mick Edlin, led 10-6 at halfway but failed to score another shot and lost by eight.

At home, Roger Burrough and his team played against a triple, with the third wood often proving decisive as the visitors won by six. Veronica Jones’s four, in the final game, needed a seven-shot win to give Clarence victory, but lost by nine.

Clarence 47, Woodspring 61 – home: Lucy Oldham, Tony Comfort, Jim Keay, Roger Burrough 11-17; Marlene Woods, John Atkins, Dick Jackman, Veronica Jones 11-19. Away: Tony Hooper, Elaine Stott, Pat Taylor, David Stott 15-7; Pam Fowler, Alan Kermack, Mary Davison, Mick Edlin 10-18.

IN a mixed friendly at home against Congresbury, Wedmore won one rink and tied the other and won 41-31 overall.

Alan Birch and his team were in a close contest until end 13 when they took the lead by six points and pulled away for a 25-15 victory. Brian Aston’s side went into an early lead of six points, but Congresbury pegged them back to be level at end 13. Thereafter it was all very tight with Wedmore having a one shot lead at the start of the last end, which Congresbury won and so tied the game.

Chew Stoke also visited for a mixed friendly when both rinks went to Wedmore. Mike Green led his team to a good win, helped by nine shots in two ends in the middle of the game and a finish of five, ending 32-8 up.

Maureen Hordle’s side were in a close contest until end 10 when they began to pull away and a lead of seven shots at end 15 felt comfortable. Chew fought back to within a point, but Wedmore resisted the challenge to finish 19-14 up, making it 51-22 overall.

The Wedmore club has a policy of entering teams in national competitions to gain wider experience and challenges. This year, the ladies had a decent run in the Yetton Plate, but then collided with North Wilts in Chippenham and bounced out.

WOODSPRING Indoor Bowls Club played in two inter-club matches.

The first was a Weston mixed game against Clarence. Woodspring won on three rinks and overall by 15 shots. The following day, in a county double fours men’s knockout match against Purnell, they lost the match by 24 shots.

Woodspring 62, Clarence 47 – at Woodspring: Ms N Urch, W Jackman, G Fews, M Brummell 7-15; Ms J Beat, S Andrews, M Reeves, G Russell 18-10. At Clarence: N Coombes, Ms M Williams, A Williams 18 (23-25%)-11; D Freestone, J Sansam, Ms C Hedges, E Hopkins 19-11.

Woodspring 27, Purnell 51 – at Woodspring: J Watson, S Andrews, R Hadley, G Russell 16-25. At Purnell: S Hedges, S Ash, M Reeves, A Williams 11-26.