NEW EARSWICK IBC had a bad day at the office against a strong Featherstone team in the over-60s double rinks competition.

In the home match, Bob Elliot, Vic Thompson, Colin Ellis and skip Ralph Tiplady were six down at the first end before the latter drew a perfect winner with his last wood to take a 1-0 lead.

But the next time they troubled the scoreboard was after the 11th end by which their rivals had scored 22.

At Featherstone, Graham Lockwood, Dave Elcock, Dave Sykes and Barry Johnson won seven of the 14 ends played but still found themselves 25-7 behind.

The teams shook hands with the home rink trailing 30-4 after 17 ends and the away team losing 36-7 after 19 ends.

New Earswick’s Yorkshire League season got under way with the ‘A’ team playing Selby ‘B’ in division two and the ‘B’ team facing Doncaster ‘B’ in division three.

Both matches followed the pattern of the home rinks winning comfortably and the away rinks made to fight. At home, the ‘A’ team rink of Paul Murray, Colin Ellis, D Sykes and Colin Pickup never trailed to seal a 28-11 win.

Barry Johnson’s rink of Dave Kermode, Dave Elcock and Mick Head took ten of the first 11 ends to lead 17-3 and went on to win 27-8.

The ‘A’ team leg at Selby saw Dave Imeson, Gary Stockton, Andrew Fothergill and Brian Gray score a seven on the eighth end to take a 10-5 lead. They also scored a five at the 13th.

But they lost the next five ends to lead only 18-16 after 18 ends before going on to win 24-18.

In the other rink at Selby, Bob Barrett, Ralph Tiplady and Bill Waldie were held 6-6 after seven ends but took control and went on to win 27-13.

The home ‘B’ team saw Gordon Fratson, Brian Hardcastle, Dave Moorhouse and skip Gordon Storey comfortably win 28-15.

In the other ‘B’ team leg, Terry Bellwood, Barry Shipley, Brian Hutton and Dave Firn were 20-2 ahead after 12 ends before easing to a 25-10 success.

In the two ‘B’ team legs at Doncaster, there was never ever more than three points difference between the rinks.

Pat Inwood, Vic Thompson, Bruce Dobson and Gary Jones swapped the lead several times. Down 18-16 after 19 ends, they notched two twos and won 20-18.

The team of Allister Domville, Martin Stubbs, Dave Hutchinson and Brian Birch were level four times before scoring a four at the 18th to go into a 15-13 lead.

They then picked up two singles, before dropping a two in the last three ends, to win 17-15.