Park clinch title hat-trick

The Egerton Park Indoor Bowls Club men's team which won the Sussex County League Division One title for the third year running

The Bexhill-based club clinched the Sussex County IBA League Division One title by a couple of points following a series of fine performances over the winter season.

Team manager Ray Hodd said: “It’s a good achievement to do it three times on the trot. I wouldn’t pick out anyone in particular; it’s a team achievement.”

The destination of the title came down to the final matches of the season on Saturday. Egerton required a minimum of 9.5 points at home to third-placed Grattons to guarantee finishing ahead of rivals Adur, who were at home to Wealden.

That meant Egerton needed to win five of the six rinks, but they stepped up to the plate and won all six, earning the maximum 11 points from an emphatic 180-61 victory. Adur, incidentally, also picked up 11 points by winning 174-78 to finish 1.6 behind Egerton.

“The nice thing about it is we’re starting to blood some of our youngsters,” continued Hodd. “We’ve got a very good youth section and the youngsters are starting to come through. About half-a-dozen of them have played in the team and one as young as 12 played at the weekend.

“We’ve got a good mixture of youth, middle age and older ones. Quite a lot are under 30, but there are some over 70 that still perform well and some of the older ones are now using their experience to help the youngsters.”

Although there are some players from Hastings and one from Eastbourne, the Egerton team - which was unbeaten on its home rink - is made up mainly of players from Bexhill.

Egerton Park’s men will feature in four of the six county finals at Eastbourne IBC tomorrow (Sunday). Ajay and Rob Morphett, Phil Wade and Steve Bain will line-up in the fours, Kevin and Colin Carrie in the pairs, Seb Morley in the under-25 singles and Callum Phillimore in the unbadged singles.

Sussex County IBA League Division One final standings (played-won-drawn-lost-points): Egerton Park 12-10-0-2-97.3, Adur 12-9-1-2-95.7, Grattons 11+(1)-5-0-6-64, Worthing 12-4-1-7-57.9, Eastbourne 12-5-0-7-56.5, Wealden 12-4-0-8-44.5, Falaise 11+(1)-3-0-8-29.