Spalding Indoor Bowls Club secure sponsorship from Bridgestone Tyres and Roythornes Solicitors

Spalding Indoor Bowls Club continued their quest for a third mixed Top Club title with a home win against Melton on Sunday.

The match also saw the introduction of the new ‘Spalding Lightning’ kit, kindly sponsored by Bridgestone Tyres and Roythornes Solicitors.

The club’s northern friends, South Shields Vipers, re-branded a few years ago and Spalding hope that, with their innovative thinking, they can continue to modernise the game and make it more appealing to the younger age groups.

They are also hoping that other clubs will follow them in this journey.

The spoils were shared in the singles contests as Chelsea Spencer won the ladies but Stephen Harris lost an extremely close match in the men’s singles.

With a win in the pairs and a defeat in the fours, the tie would be decided on the triples.

Going into the last end, Spalding’s Kevin Ekins, Annie Dunham and Martin Spencer were 18-15 up.

They consolidated well to drop a single, win 18-16 and help book Spalding’s place in the third round where they will entertain Leicester on Sunday, November 20.

Rink scores: Ladies Singles – Chelsea Spencer won 21-14; Men’s Singles – Stephen Harris lost 20-21; Pairs – Ruby Hill and Jordan Philpott won 17-11; Triples – Kevin Ekins, Annie Dunham and Martin Spencer won 18-16; Fours – Jean Patterson, Karen Martin, Graham Smith, Mathew Orrey lost 16-20.

Spalding’s ladies had a good result at home to Stamford on Thursday in the Trudy Bates County League.

Spalding started strongly on two rinks with the other two closely contested.

The team were never behind on aggregate and finished winning on all rinks, thanks to Betty Deaton’s rink scoring two shots on the last end to win by one. The overall aggregate score was 126-55 and 14-0 on points.

With two rinks winning by the same margin, the top winning rink on ends won was skipped by Maggie Wheatley, with Jean Patterson, Petrine Ault and Karen Martin, who had an impressive 35-8 success.

Rink scores: Jean Patterson, Petrine Ault, Karen Martin, Maggie Wheatley won 35-8; Carole Nunney, Sheila Chamberlain, Chris Jackson, Julie Hicks won 36-9; Freda Lyon, Jan Sinclair, Sandra Hammond, Maisie Belding won 35-19; Ann Newbury, Sue Slayven, Michelle Billingsley, Betty Deaton won 20-19.

Spalding’s men’s county league team played their second game of the season away against Boston A.

A closely contested match saw the lead change hands on numerous occasions but it was the home team who finished the stronger to win the overall aggregate by three shots, 77-74.

Spalding did win on two of the four rinks and claimed four of the available 14 match points and the top winning rink was skipped by Martin Simpson, with Nick Wilkie, Abs Belding and Graham Hicks who won 23-11.

Rink scores: Nick Wilkie, Abs Belding, Graham Hicks, Martin Simpson won 23-11; Mick Dolton, Paul Turner, Anthony Cronin, David Nunney won 18-14; Kevin Ekins, Tony Westland, Dan Mills and Ean Morton lost 20-26; Eric Wakefield, Brian Martin, Mike Robertson and Lewis Parnell lost 13-26.