Crown king’s route to the top

Photo: Picture:ANTHONY MILLER

HAUL OF FAME . . . Andrew Buckley shows off some of the many prestigious trophies he has won, including the famous Waterloo Handicap cup (front, left).

BOWLS:

WHEN you come from a bowling family and send your first bowl at the age of two, there is every chance you are destined for great things in the sport.

And that’s just how it has panned out for Andrew Buckley, Oldham’s number one player, whose father Stewart was himself a top-class player.

Buckley’s early attempts at Coalshaw Green Park, Chadderton, were followed by games against his brother, David, and lifelong friend Darren Griffiths on the nursery green at the same venue.

“As we got older and the six-week summer holidays came round we used to play up to 12 hours a day – sometimes as much as four sets of 141 up!

“We would be on the green as soon as it opened in the morning and go home for tea before going back at night.”

A successful junior career ensued, although it was David who initially proved to be the more

successful of the young Buckley brothers.

He started to take on his elders in senior competitions and even reached the quarter-finals of the Waterloo Handicap at 17, losing out to the top-class Glynn Cookson.

A year later his first major tournament win came in Radcliffe, where he was cheered on by young local Gary Ellis - who would later become the game’s number one player and Buckley’s team-mate at Nimble Nook.

“I was Gary’s hero at that time,” laughed Buckley, who continues to enjoy an enduring, mickey-taking friendship with Ellis. “He marked my card all through finals day and even backed me to win it at 25-1.”

Another big breakthrough came in the 1992 Crown King tournament in which he beat Doncaster’s Kevin Nixon in the final, a win which earned him a place in the following year’s Bass Masters.

The televised event was held at the Raikes Hotel in Blackpool and Buckley produced one of the

performances of his life to beat the great Brian Duncan, the undisputed number one bowler at the time, 21-3.

He eventually lost to his nemesis, Cookson, in the final, but the ensuing years saw him become a regular winner on the open handicap circuit despite entering far fewer tournaments than the majority of the top players.

That remains the same today with Buckley admitting: “I find myself becoming burned out and if it wasn’t for the Waterloo I would have ended my season in September some years.”