Gasson seals superb comeback

Halifax and District produced a classic fightback to snatch a 17-15 (442-433) win over Barnsley and Wath in a Federation of Crown Green Bowls National League match.

The Division One contest was played over two days with the Halifax home leg at Brighouse Sports on Saturday evening and the away leg at Penistone BC on Sunday afternoon.

Halifax’s hopes looked bleak when they lost the home leg 10-4 (210-222) but the away team did a superb job to turn things round with a 9-5 (232-211) scoreline in their favour.

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Crucially, Halifax gained the four extra points for overall aggregate success by a nine-chalk margin.

At Brighouse, Halifax shared winners with the visitors in the first four jacks with Robert Holmes (Elland WM) outstanding, winning to 10. Halifax had a slender three chalk lead on aggregate.

There was only one Halifax winner from the next four jacks but Gareth Coates (Akroydon Victoria) came out on top 21-7 to extend Halifax’s aggregate lead to seven chalks.

There was only one more Halifax winner from the remaining four jacks and that was win to single figures for Robert Hitchen (Elland WM). However, the aggregate advantage had by now been surrendered to Barnsley by 12 chalks.

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Sunday morning was very wet in Penistone but the green had drained well and the Halifax players seemed up for the big challenge.

They had six winners from the first eight with Richard Hobson (Brighouse Sports) winning to 14 and James Senior (Elland WM) conceding just one more chalk in his game.

Halifax had now established not only an away aggregate lead but were also eight chalks ahead on overall aggregate.

One winner and a narrow defeat were the features of the last four jacks for Halifax and the win to six by Tom Gasson (Hove Edge) and the 20 score line by Gordon Bradford (Greetland) meant Halifax had pulled off the unlikely.

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Scores (Halifax names first) - at Brighouse: K Hatzer (Hove Edge) 21 D Poole 17, N Briggs (Brighouse) 12 P Bailey 21, R Holmes (Elland WMC) 21 D Sillito 10, A Bray (Hove Edge) 18 S Day 21, P Demetriades (Elland WMC) 15 G Davis 21, P Ingleby (Elland WMC) 20 J Thomas 21, D Holdsworth (Akroydon Vics) 18 N McDermott 21, G Coates (Akroydon Vics) 21 I Dowie 7, P Smyth (Akroydon Vics) 19 S Goldthorpe 21, M Regan (Brighouse) 12 B Massey 21, R Hitchen (Elland WMC) 21 A Whitaker 20, D Barker (Akroydon Vivs) 12 J Hardwick 21.

At Penistone BC: T Riley (Brighouse) 21 J Hill 17, J Horsley (Brighouse) 19 S Parks 21, R Hobson (Brighouse) 21 M Parks 14, G Roberts (Brighouse) 21 R Wiltshire 17, J Senior (Elland WMC) 21 I Chappell 15, A Tattersley (Lower Hopton) 21 C Haywood 20, N Slattery (Lower Hopton) 21 M Bramhall 17, H Kettlewell (Brighouse) 17 S Bramhall 21, R Hopper (Brighouse) 16 J Hopkinson 21, G Bradford (Greetland) 20 D Atkinson 21, T Gasson (Hove Edge) 21 D Mallinson 6, M Connolly (Brighouse) 13 C Hill 21.