Tonge seal title in style

BOWLS: TONGE clinched the Manchester Premier League title with a display as emphatic as any in a season of total dominance.

Their 13.5-3 (182-163) victory at Liverpool outfit Richmond was typical of their away displays which have seen them lose only once on their travels.

Winners for Tonge were Gary Ellis (21-14), Andrew Cairns (21-17), Matt Gillies (21-19), Simon Coupe (21-6), Colin Lane (21-18), Darren Griffiths (21-12) and Steve Squire (21-14).

Three members of the Tonge team will play in the end-of-season Champion of Champions event in Blackpool tomorrow (10am).

Recent Waterloo Handicap hero Coupe takes on All-England Merit winner Noel Burrows, while team-mates Ellis (Hill Crest Classic) and Cairns (Brighouse Classic) have been drawn to play each other.

A top-class field of 32 bowlers also includes Graeme Wilson, Ellis’s rival as the sport’s number one, and Greater Manchester Merit winner Gareth Gwilliam.

The women’s event takes place on Sunday (10am).


FINALS of Springbank’s two-man team competition will be held tonight (6.30pm) when last year’s winners, Andrew Buckley and Darren Griffiths, will be hot favourites to land the top prize.



A NEW Inbev Winter Bowling League season gets under way at the Chadderton Cot artificial green this weekend..



OLDHAM’S three representatives in the finals of Norden BC’s Your Choice men’s singles were all beaten in the last 16.

Barry Seville lost 21-16 to Andy Fergus, Dave Copeland was defeated 21-9 by Mark Armson and Paul Heap went down 21-16 to Paul Atherden.

The competition was won by Bamford’s Michael Johnson, who defeated Armson 21-6 in the final.