With all three title-chasing teams playing on the Friday night this week in Division One of the John Sharples (Letting Agents) sponsored Furness and District Bowling League, it meant they could all concentrate on their own results rather than looking over their shoulders.

And concentrate they did, as all three earned convincing wins to keep themselves in the hunt.

Lindal hosted Glaxo and had the biggest win of the night, 13-1. Paul and Kevin Rooney led the way with 21-4 and 21-6 wins, respectively, with Dave Dickinson weighing in with a 21-7 of his own. Glaxo’s Steve Ashburn was their sole winner (21-18).

That win put Lindal just four points behind leaders Police after they themselves defeated Salthouse 10-4. Paul Curwen showed he was still fuming from being last week's only loser as he made short work of his game winning 21-2. Liam Howard also was unstoppable in his 21-6 victory to send them on their way. For Salthouse, Michael Smith bowled excellently to win 21-13, as did Allan Asbury in beating his classy opponent 21-14.

Third-place King Alfred kept themselves right in the hunt as they made the short trip across Walney to the Post Office and ran out impressive 12-3 winners. Paul Hewitson, Tony Whitehouse and Jeff Hinde all had excellent single-figure wins for the reigning champions whilst Zach Walker had an excellent win over the merit leader Barry Lowden for the Post Office.

At the other end of the table, Hawcoat Park A look like they will be returning to Division Two next year, as their woes continued with a 11-4 home defeat against Dalton CC. Dalton’s Keith Banks and Steven Davey led the way with 21-10 wins.

Hawcoat’s Colin Knipe returned to form with a 21-16 victory, a scoreline matched by Wilf Heywood, whilst top man John Gill had a great win against a formidable opponent.

King Alfred A currently find themselves ten points of safety after a 10-5 defeat at home to Co-op and will need to start stringing some results together if they are to survive the drop. Steve Bushell 21-3 and Martin Ryder 21-4 were the star men for Co-op in a game where they also won three games 21-20. Keith Mills and John Kolbe both won 21-15 to lead the way for the Alfred.

Along with Glaxo, Walney Park could yet be dragged into the battle for survival, as they fell to a 10-5 home defeat at the hands of the enigmatic Red River. Dave Shaw, Stuart Aspinall and Paul Ryan all had great single-figure wins for the River, whilst Mark Lamb showed his class in an impressive 10-4 win.

Two teams currently in mid-table positions met at Askam as Hawcoat Park were the visitors. In one of those strange final results we see every now and again Askam won eight of the 12 games but thanks to Roger Barrow winning 21-4 and Bob Stewart winning 21-7 for Hawcoat they took the aggregate points, meaning Askam fell over the line with an 8-7 win.

Askam's best winners were at both ends of the age spectrum with young Fraser Rigg and ‘forever young’ Kenny Knowles, both winning to 12.

Results

Division One

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

Division Two

Kirkby A 10 Hawcoat Park B 4, King Alfred B 9 Kirkby 5, Salthouse A 9 Police A 5, Roose 8 West Shore 6, Barrow Island 11 Walney Park A 3, Co-op A 12 Roose A 2, Dalton CC A 10 Askam A 4.

Division Three

Walney Park B 4 Barrow Island A 11, Hawcoat Park C 2 Lindal A 13, Glaxo A 10 North Scale 4, Red River A 10 Salthouse B 4, West Mount 6 Co-op B 9.