Heaven 17!

Bowls:

CROWN green bowling’s top player, Gary Ellis, has been reflecting on his incredible run of success.

The champion has collected 17 major titles this year, culminating in the Waterloo Handicap in Blackpool.

Not since the legendary Brian Duncan has a player so dominated the game. And Ellis’s season isn’t over yet.

The Tonge star returns to the Waterloo on Saturday for the Champion of Champions’ tournament, in which 32 of the sport’s top achievers this season will fight it out for a top prize of £1,000.

Of his recent fourth Waterloo triumph he said: “You never expect to win the Waterloo. You just want to play well and give yourself a chance, so to see myself priced up at 3-1 on in the semi-finals was a bit surreal.”

Asked to explain his unprecedented success in 2012, Ellis was typically modest.

“When I was a young lad I was better on fast greens, but as I have got older and stronger I have grown more accustomed to heavier conditions.

“Had it been a hot, dry summer I would not have won all these tournaments — perhaps I might not even have won five.”

The Spring Waterloo Handicap evaded him, but he still has a shot at the fourth and final leg — Saturday’s Champion Of Champions tournament.

He plays highly-rated Yorkshireman Thomas Hanson in the first round.

“It would be lovely to win another one, but if I don’t I don’t,” he said.

With some high-profile tournaments still to come, it is highly doubtful that Ellis’s winning streak has come to an end.



NIMBLE Nook’s Matt Gillies won the £200 top prize in the Delph men’s open when he defeated his team-mate, Andrew Buckley, 21-6 in the final.

In the semi-finals, Gillies (pictured) overcame another Nook player, Darren Griffiths, 21-11, while Buckley beat Rochdale’s Peter Fielding 21-14.




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