Eight games in and the Second Division of the John Sharples (Letting Agents) sponsored Barrow and District Bowling League is starting to take shape with the fancied teams gathering at the top of the table.

Last year’s relegated team, Roose, held on to the majority of their players and always looked strong enough to challenge for the title and bounce back.

However, the suffered their first defeat of the season, as they lost 9-5 at the hands of Kirkby last week. Peter Tyson showed all his experience to win 21-5 for the village side with David Tray and Stuart Goodwin backing him up.

Second-placed West Shore took the chance to close the gap on the leaders as they won 10-4 in the local derby with Walney Park A.

Roger Holmes won 21-4 for the home side to set them on their way and with Brian Chelton and Rohan Massey Holmes also winning well the result was never in doubt.

Kirkby A currently find themselves above their first team in the table and continued their strong form this week with a 9-5 victory over Co-op A . Ken Ashcroft and Shaun Taylor both had great single-figure wins for Kirkby as did Peter Phizacklea and Dave Benn for the Co-op.

Police A entertained a Dalton CC A team who are underperforming at the moment and sadly for them the trend continued as the coppers strolled to an 11-3 victory, with five of the games ending in single-figure wins.

The best of these was Dave Little who excelled in his 21-2 win whilst brothers Mark and Mike Simpson won 21-6 and 21-8 respectively.

Roose A and Askam A had a titanic tussle where the home team took seven games but lost the aggregate points by just six chalks and in doing so the game 8-7.

For the visitors Norman Milburn’s amazing 21-2 victory went a long way to securing those points along with Owen Richard’s 21-10 win.

Hawcoat Park B and Barrow Island also fought out a close game as they shared the spoils 6-6, but thanks to good wins from John Stewart and Anthony Woods they took the game 8-6. Terry Marshall was the best winner for the Island (21-11).

Salthouse A have a good mix of youth and experience and continued their good form as they breezed to an 11-3 win at home to King Alfred B, with Geoff Carlisle (21-5) and Ken Howarth (21-7) both in excellent form.

Results

Division One

Glaxo 12 Red River 2, Askam 10 Post Office 4, King Alfred 13 Glaxo 1, Co-op 10 Salthouse 4, Dalton CC 11 King Alfred A 3, Hawcoat Park 9 Police 5, Red River 8 Lindal 7.

Division Two

Police A 11 Dalton CC A 3, West Shore 10 Walney Park A 4, Kirkby A 9 Co-op A 5, Salthouse A 11 King Alfred B 3, Hawcoat Park B 8 Barrow Island 6, Kirkby 9 Roose 5, Roose A 7 Askam A 8.

Division Three

Lindal A 13 Westmount 1, Walney Park B 4 Hawcoat Park C 11, North Scale 12 Red River A 2, Glaxo A 11 West Shore A 3, Barrow Island A 9 Roose B 5, Co-op B 9 Salthouse B 5.