Park closing in on national title (From Daily Echo)

Park closing in on national title

9:40am Thursday 2nd February 2012 in General Sport

Banister Park Bowls Club are two matches away from being national champions after reaching the semi-finals of the English Indoor BA over-60s’ double-rink competition.

They booked their ticket to Northampton this month with a heart-stopping 41-40 win against Wey Valley.

At Eastleigh Neville Scovell, Barry Bendall, John Joslin and Denny Graydon went down 19-18 but at Guildford Cliff Higgins, Brian Barber, Derek Walker and Graham Standley, pictured, edged in 22-21 against Paul Vamvacopoulos to force an extra end played by Standley.

Wey Valley held two shots in the sudden-death shoot-out until Standley drew the shot with his final delivery and old adversary Vamvacopoulos was unable to alter the situation with his last wood.

The semi-finals are on Friday, February 17, at 9.30 with the final at 2pm that same day. Banister Park’s opponents in the last four are not known.

Banister Park’s hopes of reaching another national final perished in a 79-60 defeat by Kingsthorpe from Northampton in the Denny Plate quarter-final.

For a full bowls round-up, see today's Southern Daily Echo,