WHITE Hart Crown Green Bowling Club made a flying start to the season with a comprehensive home victory over local rivals Wythall.
White Hart’s A team began their S.W. Birmingham League Division 1 campaign in style as Mick Perrins (21-17), Norman Batchelor (21-13), Neil Laxton (21-15), Ian Humphreys (21-20), Mike Estell (21-2) and Kirk Wright (21-19) all won their ends.
And that earned White Hart the maximum 10 points from their opening fixture with a 126-85 victory overall.
And Mick Perrins ensured White Hart made an impressive start as he scored seven shots without reply against Harvey Lee.
He kept his form to lead 16-7 before the Wythall man bowled his way into contention and to within one point at 15-16 before Perrins hen regained control to finally run out a 21-17 winner.
Norman Batchelor was involved in a tight scrap with Wythall’s David Watts over the first dozen ends, but went from 9-10 behind to win convincingly 21-13.
White Hart’s Neil Laxton appeared to be in deep trouble against Mike Reck but came from 8-15 down to complete a miraculous turnaround to win 21-15.
Ian Humphreys finally got the better of Wythall’s Pam Birch in a very close battle to achieve a 21-20 card. whilst Mike Estell made short work of the challenge from the visiting captain Clive Dolphin by defeating him 21-2.
That meant White Hart captain Kirk Wright and Wythall’s Colin Parkes had the green to themselves for most of the final tie.
Parkes took a useful 7-2 lead early on but Wright claimed the next 10 shots to lead 12-7.
The Wythall bowler began to find a few telling shots with his last bowl to keep well in contention and eventually levelled at 18-all before Wright claimed the jack on the 27th end and produced two accurate shots to finally win 21-18.
However, White Hart’s Sunday A team had a very difficult draw in the first round of the Kendrick Trophy against last year’s Division 1 champions Baldwin A at Bournville.
Despite this, White Hart made a decent start with all four opening ties competitive early on.
Hart did manage to win two of the first four games, Ian Humphreys impressively beating Nathan Crocombe 21-12 and Norman Batchelor performing similarly well in defeating Rod Monnington 21-13.
Baldwin’s strongest bowlers were in their final four however as Neil Laxton led 6-4 but failed to score any more against Jim Kernick, Mike Estell led county bowler Shannon Kernick early on but was pegged back 13-2.
Acting captain Kirk Wright started well against fellow county bowler Emily Kernick but was comfortably beaten 8-21, and Mick Perrins was defeated by Michelle Meadowcroft 12-21.
Baldwin progress to the next round with a 151-109 victory, though Hart were not disgraced playing a team who are a division above them in The Northfield and District Sunday League.
