Beckingham bowlers sunk by heavy rain in a week to forget

Frustration reigned for Beckingham Bowls Club after a week in which they had three matches postponed because of the weather, suffered two league defeats and also saw the chairman bow out of a prestigious singles competition.
BECKINGHAM Bowls Club round-up.BECKINGHAM Bowls Club round-up.
BECKINGHAM Bowls Club round-up.

Heavy and persistent rain prevented the club’s groundstaff cutting the green -- a task that is normally done two or three times a week. Even when the rain stopped, the green, which normally drains well, was holding far too much water for play to resume. This resulted in a Gainsborough League fixture falling by the wayside, plus two matches in the Isle Of Axholme Pensioners League.

Beckingham’s Isle Of Axholme Evening League team did manage to squeeze in a couple of matches, but both ended in reverses. First they crashed by nine points to one at Epworth, where they managed just a draw on the three rinks. And two days later, they fell by eight points to two at home to Belton, who also won two of the three rinks.

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Meanwhile chairman Clive Hunter was knocked out of the Gainsborough Bowls League’s singles competition, at home to Ron Sharpe, of Marton. But at least there was good news for Beckingham in the league’s pairs competition because Ken Byfleet and John Foster defied unusually heavy conditions to defeat the strong Marshall A duo, Dave Cox and Ray Hargreaves. In a closely-fought battle, Byfleet and Foster pulled away at the end to win by six shots to set up a Second Round tie against another Marshall A pairing, Roy Enever and Tim Kempton.