ALL ENGLAND BOWLS MERIT
1933
Played at the Farmers Arms on Friday 18th and Saturday 19th August.
Last 16
J. Gough (Staffordshire) 21 v 6 J. Denman (Warwick & Worcs)
T. Rock (Warwick & Worcs) 21 v 19 W.J Gennoe (Shropshire)
S. Hulse (Cheshire) 21 v 13 G. Bennett (Derbyshire)
R.G. Meyrick (Shropshire) 21 v 18 W. Rhodes (Cheshire)
G. Garthwaite (Yorkshire) 21 v 13 S. Dickinson (Cheshire)
W. Wingate (Lancashire) 21 v 20 S. Shaw (Cheshire)
F. Bryan (Yorkshire) 18 v 21 J. Eyes (Cheshire)
P. Butterworth (Cheshire) 21 v 20 J. Austin (Cheshire)
Quarter Finals
J. Gough 12 v 21 T. Rock
S. Hulse 21 v 17 R.G Meyrick
G. Garthwaite 21 v 15 W. Wingate
J. Eyes 21 v 10 P. Butterworth
The officials decided, and very wisely too, to close the competition at 8:45pm after the semi finals had been discovered and continue on Saturday 19th August at 4pm on the same green, when players will be allowed travel expenses. The arrangements for the competition were well carried out by the Cheshire secretary, Mr G. French and his staff, while the comforts of the large crowd received excellent attention from Mr J.S Brain.
Semi Finals
T. Rock 6 v 21 S. Hulse
G. Garthwaite 20 v 21 J. Eyes
FINAL
J. EYES 21 v 14 S. HULSE
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1983
From the Northwich Guardian, Thursday 18th August.
2100 SEE FRITH TRIUMPH
There was a crowd of 2100 at Lostock Alkali on Saturday to see Stan Frith triumph in the 68th All England Crown Green Bowls Merit finals sponsored by Holstein Larger (writes Mike Talbot-Butler).
Takings on the day were £1535 added to the estimated £1000 advanced stand seat sales which made it an event where everyone was a winner, enjoying glorious sunshine throughout the enthralling eleven hours competition.
Last 16
E. Hulbert 21 v 21 0 J. Shorthouse
H. Turner 21 v 20 M. Brown
P.W. Smith 21 v 16 A. Milsom
D. Monks 21 v 17 K. Burrows
I. McTavish 21 v 12 A. Thorpe
S. Frith 21 v 14 M. Burdon
S. Nugent 21 v 14 T. Griffiths
T. Turner 21 v 18 N. Fletcher
Quarter Finals
M. Turner 21 v 14 E. Hulbert
D. Monks 21 v 13 P.W. Smith
S. Frith 21 v 17 I. McTavish
T. Turner 21 v 17 S. Nugent
Semi Finals
D. Monks 21 v 18 M. Turner
S. Frith 21 v 13 T. Turner
FINAL
S. FRITH 21 v 7 D. MONKS
Owley Wood’s Stan Frith became the first Cheshire winner since Wilf Line (Stockport) in 1973, the first Mid Cheshire man to claim the trophy since Ron Oakes (Middlewich) in 1968 and the first from the Northwich area since Davenham’s Arnold Bebbington did the trick in 1949.
He told me “it’s the pinnacle of my career and what all bowlers dream about, it was hard graft because i had to start on the flat number 2 green in the morning when the going was like lightning, then play the Semi Final and Final on the number 1 green when things were slowing up. By the time the dew was settling with the floodlights on at 9 O’clock conditions had changed completely”.
Stan, 45, saw his hardest game in round 2, when he beat Derbyshire’s champion Keith Widdowson 21-18, it was certainly his closest.
The Final saw Stan take on virtual unknown Derek Monks, age 40 of South Yorkshire, a Miller from Doncaster.
“i Knew i had him when he couldn’t get the block, he never came to terms with the slower pace of the green, but i was surprised to win so easily”, the new champion said after he had coasted to a 21-7 triumph and claimed the magnificent silver trophy and £500 first prize.
Lostock Club secretary Albert Phillips felt the day had been a great success and said he and his staff had been congratulated warmly for their organisation.
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2015
WHARTON CONS TOM VICKERS SAYS WINNING ALL ENGLAND IS HIS BEST MOMENT IN BOWLS
THOMAS Vickers’ face did not once betray what he was feeling during the biggest match since he first started bowling.
But when his opponent, Gareth Herbert, sent long a last wood at all but 17, he released every emotion kept in check over the preceding eight hours.
The Winsford bowler, realising what he had achieved, leapt high following a short sprint and punched the air.
Following six victories during an at times arduous day, the Wharton Cons member earned the most coveted prize in his chosen sport – the British Individual Senior Merit.
He had fallen to his knees by the time jubilant friends and supporters reached him in the middle of number one green at Florence Bowling Club in Stoke.
They, like him, knew the size of the 26-year-old’s achievement.
Vickers is the 10th man from the Mid-Cheshire Bowling Association to win the competition since its inaugural edition in 1910, the first since clubmate Glynn Cookson 18 years ago.
Yet as a 20/1 outsider at the start, most observers didn’t fancy the Cheshire Senior Merit winner’s chances.
That was still the case by the time he started the final against Herbert, representing Warwick and Worcester, who had been brilliant in sending out two-time winner Graeme Wilson in the quarter finals.
And he was similarly so when, at six-across, he twice landed a strike to cause dead ends when Vickers’ woods were closest to the jack.
Herbert, backed by a boisterous travelling support, then established a three-chalk lead at 14-11 and 17-14.
But Vickers was undeterred.
Instead, he won the next five ends without reply to land the £1,200 first prize.
His beaten opponent, and those making most noise, fell silent.
By then, a first-round struggle against David Gill will have seemed a lifetime ago.
Vickers struggled initially, but recovered to 13-across from 9-4 adrift.
He was relieved to progress 21-17.
Buoyed, he was an emphatic victor against Tonie Moxham (21-11), Steve Freer (21-14) and Andy Cairns (21-8) to set up a semi-final encounter with Andrew Moss, a runner-up in 1999.
The Shropshire bowler had eliminated Graham Gardiner, Cookson’s conqueror in the last 32, earlier on.
But at 20-9, Vickers was favourite to again progress with relative ease.
Moss rallied though, taking the following four ends to close to the gap.
However with no margin for error, he erred at the next to bow out 21-14.
Herbert, who counted the Potteries and Yorkshire champions among his victims, could not add a third scalp.
Instead Vickers’ success keeps Cheshire at the top of a list of the most successful counties in the tournament’s history, with 20 wins.
It is also the latest chapter in the story of an already record-breaking season after he became the first bowler to win the Guardian Cup, Roberts Bakery Cup and Cheshire Senior Merit in the same summer.
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