The Greville claimed their third Free Press Cup success after beating Winshill by 65, but the game wasn’t as comfortable as the score line suggests!
Greville started well though, Carl Fielding going 14-3 up on a round peg, and Pete Dunkley 12-3 up on a short mark. Pete managed to win 11, but Richard Goldby got back to 17 against Carl for Winshill, and Matt Farmer from 17-9 down got back to 20 across against Darren Plenderleith. Dave Smith led Darren Round 18-13 and Darrell Matkin had gone 8-1 up on Ash Bracken as momentum shifted towards Winshill. But Plenderleith played a good bowl to win 20, and Round ran out, which meant the Greville were 18 up off four. Ash also lengthened the mark to come back at Darrell and won 18, and once Ross Dunkley ran out from 10-9 up it meant the Greville were virtually there. Liam Lowery then from 12-9 up ran out for the Greville as the rain started to fall again. Brian Jordan did get a win for Winshill, always leading after being 8-8 across to win 13, but as the rain fell harder, Callum Mitchell from 8-5 up won 7 and Josh Hale from 9-5 up also won 7 to add gloss to the score line for the Greville.
Victorious Greville captain Callum Mitchell says “we’re absolutely buzzing to win the Free Press Cup on its return to the bowling calendar. As a team we’ve been excellent throughout this competition and makes it all worthwhile when we get our name on this historic trophy. We came into the final full of confidence and had to stick with it and work hard to beat a good Winshill side who were excellent on and off the green. Thank you to Heath Hayes for their hospitality, Bill Staite for allowing the game to flow and also to Rob Burroughs for the organising of the competition in which he did a great job.”
Well done to the Greville on their success.
| No | Greville | Score | Score | Winshill |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Darren Plenderleith | 21 | 20 | Matt Farmer |
| 2 | Darren Round | 21 | 18 | Dave Smith |
| 3 | Carl Fielding | 21 | 17 | Richard Goldby |
| 4 | Pete Dunkley | 21 | 11 | Richard Gibbs |
| 5 | Ash Bracken | 21 | 18 | Darrell Matkin |
| 6 | Ross Dunkley | 21 | 9 | Dougan Tubey |
| 7 | Liam Lowery | 21 | 9 | Tom Brown |
| 8 | Nathan Caines | 13 | 21 | Brian Jordan |
| 9 | Callum Mitchell | 21 | 7 | Steve Crockett |
| 10 | Josh Hale | 21 | 7 | Matt Seaborn |
| Games | 9 | 1 | Games | |
| Aggregate | 202 | 137 | Aggregate |
