Bowls

WHITEKNIGHTS Indoor Bowls Club played a mixed match on Sunday against the Buckinghamshire Vice President’s Bowling Association and won 158-107.

Whiteknights raced into an early lead and never let up from there to win the match by 51 shots over the six rinks.

Top rink for Whiteknights was skipped by Peter Hitt with Virginia Parnell, Mick Parnell and David Ashley-Down - plus 26 shots.

Neil Gauld’s rink with Dave Mills, Nan Ridehalgh and Stevie Giles finished 21 shots ahead.

With a plus scorecard of 18 shots was the rink skipped by Alan Glenny with Dave Parker, Sandra Kemp and Guy Thorn.

BERKSHIRE Ladies survived a fightback from Desborough to run out 144-106 winners in their recent encounter.

A flying start saw Berks open up a 15-shot lead but the hosts battled back to cut the advantage to eight at the halfway stage.

However, Berks kept their cool and finished strongly to win by 38 shots.

Top rink for Berkshire was skipped by Mavis Miller with Cheryl Colby, Roberta Harris and Jill Hardie (+21 shots) while Anne Ward’s rink with Sylvia Burbage, June Poulding and Gwen Joyce won by 11 shots.

The triple skipped by Mary Parkinson with Yvonne Hailstone and Sue Griffin finished with an eight-shot advantage.

President Ingrid Merry’s triple with Cathy Edwards and Caroline Hitt edged their rink by two shots.

RIVERMEAD Indoor Bowls Club suffered a 95-62 defeat to Oxford City & County in the Wessex League.

John Sayer’s rink of Rod Brown, Geoff Tombs and Richard West were involved in a titanic struggle before coming away with an 18-16 win.

While Peter Cowen’s away rink were having a day to forget, going down by 30 shots, Sayer was locked in a fierce battle where the lead changed six times.

The front pairing of Brown and Tombs played superbly throughout and led a recovery from 14-10 down after 15 ends to lead 17-14.

After Hall drew in to take a two off the penultimate end, and with Oxford holding a match winning three on the last end, Sayer held his nerve in playing weight and moving a Rivermead bowl forward to nudge out and replace the shot bowl to claim victory.

“There wasn’t a weakness in the team on either side which meant we were battling it out each end so it’s really satisfying when you come out on the right side of such an intense match,” said Sayer

John Eatwell’s rink picked up two fours and two threes as they continued their impressive home form in securing a further two points with their 23-18 win.

Rivermead Ladies were licking their wounds after losing 112-103 to Wey Valley, despite winning on four of the five rinks.

Performance of the day came from Lottie Allen’s rink who came from 14-3 down to grab a 24-22 win in a stunning second-half display.

Daphne Brown uncharacteristically lost a six on the final end but still scrapped through 21-19.

Elsewhere, a match-winning performance by Jim Brown’s triple of Margaret Emmons and Barry Davies, including picking up a seven on the last end, saw him hand in a 38-6 winning card to secure Rivermead a 124-84 victory over Broomwade.

Jim Woodford, skipping wife Di and Keith Joslin, made a late home run to win 17-11 while Jack Emmons picked up eight shots in the last four ends to record a 21-15 victory.

Rowing

READING Rowing Club juniors Isabelle Richards and Oliver Pizura are the British Indoor Rowing champions after triumphing in Cardiff last weekend.

Pizura, 13, won the junior men’s J14 category, who rowed 1,122m in four minutes.

Richards, also 13, won the women’s equivalent with 1,079m in four minutes and both were presented with their gold medals by the event organiser.

Callum Iddon raced to a bronze medal in the J16 race but Annabel Stevens just missed out on a medal in her J16 race and finished fourth.

Nick Ward and Sophie Morgan gave their all in their J18 and J16 races respectively and both left the floor absolutely exhausted.