Kington's Ron Bithell is Herefordshire Bowls singles champion (From Hereford Times)

Kington's Ron Bithell is Herefordshire Bowls singles champion

9:00am Thursday 19th July 2012 in Other

Kington ’S Ron Bithell is the new county singles champion after Herefordshire Bowls held their men’s county finals at Leominster .

Bithell battled his way past David Magness (Hereford) 21-14 in the semi-finals to earn his final spot against Ledbury ’s Luke Harwood who beat Phil Middleton (Ross ) 21-17.

Although there had been plenty of ebb and flow in both semi-finals, the final was a comparatively conclusive affair with Bithell romping into a 14-2 lead after nine ends.

Although Harwood did his best to reduce the lead, Bithell eased away for a 21-6 success.

Two Ross players, Shaun Jones and Glyn Williams, contested a new competition for this year, the two-wood singles.

Jones took an early lead to go 12-4 up after 11 ends but Williams picked a two and changed the length of the jack, going on to win the remaining nine ends for a 15-12 success.

Jones had more success when he came up against another Ross-on-Wye clubmate Dan Palmer in the Junior Singles.

This match produced some excellent bowling with Palmer 10-9 ahead after 13 ends.

Jones then picked up a two, three and one to take a 15-10 lead but Palmer won the next five ends for singles to draw level at 15-15.

Jones then came back with a two and three ones to lead 20-15 and confirmed his victory on the last end.

The tightest game of the day was the triples between the Brimfield trio of Ashley Edwards, Richard Arrowsmith and Adrian Allen and Ross-on-Wye’s Phil Middleton, Martin Smith and Ivan Beesley.

After nine ends, Brimfield led 9-2 but Ross recovered to gain an 11-10 advantage after 15 ends.

Brimfield picked up a two and one to go 13-11 up with one end to play and although Ross took the final end with a one they still went down by 13-12.

The final championship was the fours where Eastnor , which was skipped by Graham Williams, took the honours with a win over Kington, skipped by Paul Pritchard.

With 12 ends played, Eastnor led 10-9 and they then picked up a two, four and three over the next four ends to take control of the final.

Kington immediately fought back with four and two to be 19-17 down but Eastnor picked up two threes on the run-in to win 25-19.

All finalists will be heading to Worthing for the National Championships.