BIRTHDAY BOY'S PRESENT

Today was Men's captain, Ric Newson's (pictured) birthday but his hopes of getting his day off to a good start were dashed as he lost narrowlty to the very experienced Charlie Bailey of Fareham in the first discipline to finish in today's Hampshire North/East Final of the National Top Club played on the neutral green at Alton Social. Fareham have been having an excellent season and Oakley, if they were to progress to the next round, against the Surrey champions, needed to win three of the remaining disciplines. This looked a tall task as the Triples had made a poor start and the other disciplines were too close to call. Although the next point went to Oakley, as Martin Vickers had a comfortable win in the Singles, the match was now finely balanced. The Fours was to prove pivotal. With one end left to play, Oakley led by 2 shots and when Graham Tompkins drew the second bowl to give Oakley their second point, the attention turned to the last two disciplines where playng their last ends the Oakley Pairs led by 4 and the Triples by 2. A win for either would give Oakley the match and it was the Pairs that relieved the tension by scoring two shots to clinch their point. The Triples also won to give Oakley a 4-1 victory. Captain Ric had his bithday present but, as he reflected afterwards, the final score did not convey how close the match had been throughout. Oakley scores: Ric Newson lost 12-14; Martin Vickers won 21-9; Steve Devonish and Sean Lassman won 23-17; Hugh Aherne, Malcolm Grime and Spencer Kerley won 17-16; Martin Smith, Jim Dixon, Rolf Denny and Graham Tompkins won 15-14.