THE Chawton Park pairing of Beryl Collier and Margaret Leppard went down fighting in the National 0/60s ladies’ pairs finals, played at Nottingham IBC

Given a tough draw against the home favourites, skipped by former international Pam Cutts, the Chawton duo began tentatively and fell behind in the early stages, although never out of reach.

By the 14th end, they had drawn level at 12-12, but an unlucky sliced jack on the next end proved costly and the game slipped away from the Hampshire pair, finally losing by 24 shots to 15. Still, it was a creditable effort from the Chawton ladies.

Margaret Holden, Chawton Park’s only representative in the Hampshire IBA County finals, met title holder Nicole Rogers in the ladies’ singles, played out at Riverside IBC. As in previous encounters, the pair were closely matched and the lead changed frequently through two hours of intense concentration. However, with Rogers leading 17-16, Holden had an uncharacteristic lapse, dropping four shots to lose 21-16.

Previously, Dick Holden, Dave Turner and Adam White gave one of their weakest performances of the season and were beaten 19-11 by Victory IBC in their County triples semi-final.

Youth overcame experience as Chawton’s last semi-finalists, Alice and Dave Atwell, went down to Loddon Vale’s Nicole Rogers and Ashley Nethercliffe in the mixed pairs.

Twenty-five Hampshire junior bowlers competed in the Chawton Park coaching team’s annual tournament. Three age groups – U12, 12-15 and 15-8 – played a round-robin format to determine the semi-finalists and then a straight knockout played over six ends.

The 15-18 years final was an all-Loddon Vale affair between two of Hampshire’s brightest junior prospects, Nicole Rogers and Ashley Nethercliffe. Nicole was the winner.

In the 12-15 final, Lorna Devonish (Loddon Vale) defeated Sam Fisher (Banister Park).

The U12 group final featured Chawton Park’s Reece Graham against Alice Lovett and the Loddon Vale girl completed a clean sweep for her club.