Northumberland Park 5s
NORTHUMBERLAND LINSKILL DEFEND THEIR TITLE!
For the second year running Northumberland Linskill has won the Northumberland 5s ... by the slenderest of margins over local rivals Percy BC!
The now traditional season-opener saw 36 six-end matches from which NLBCs 'Linskill' team amassed 16 points and a +14 shot difference, earning them first position ahead of Percy (16 points and a +12 shot difference) as well as NLBCs 'Northumberland', North Shields West End (NSWE), Willington Quay and Whitley Bay & Monkseaton (WBM).
The morning session was 'taken' by Willington Quay with three wins in the Pairs (6 pts and +15 shots) and two wins in the Triples (4 pts and +5 shots). This put them just ahead of Linskill who had an almost identical record. The Wattsies also earned three wins in the Pairs with +9 on shots while Amy, Simon and Ryan earned two Triples wins and +3 on shots. So both teams were on 10 points but Willington Quay's +20 shots put them ahead of Linskill's +12.
For 'Northumberland' Eddie & Ian were playing superbly in the Pairs but lost narrowly 4-5 and 5-6 before securing a good 5-2 win. In the Triples Geoff, Lynn & Ronnie also came up against strong opposition but did well to gain an 8-4 win and a 4-4 draw before a 2-9 loss. Overall, 'Northumberland' earned 5 points - less than their play deserved.
Of the other teams, Percy earned 6 points, WBM 3 and NSWE 2.
The afternoon session saw Fours and Singles, with Percy making a strong comeback. They won all three Fours matches (+12 on shots) and the first two of their Singles (+3) on shots. At the same time Willington Quay were falling away, losing all three of their Fours and one of their Singles. Linskill were also finding the afternoon tougher with Michael, Kev, George and Keith managing one win in the Fours and, after two games, Anthony had won one of his Singles.
For Northumberland, Mel, Dave B, Tony & Reg won their first game 9-2 but then suffered two losses, while in the Singles Dave W was finding things tough against good opponents and was sitting on two losses before his final match.
The final Singles matches would therefore decide the overall winners - and it was Linskill who came out on top as Percy and W Quay both lost while NLBC Club Champion Anthony secured a vital and excellent 6-2 win over Dave W (in a rematch of the 2025 NLBC Men's Championship Final).
The final table was:
Won Drawn Lost Pts For Against Diff
Linskill 8 0 4 16 65 51 +14
Percy 7 1 4 16 67 55 +12
Willington Quay 7 0 5 14 70 48 +22
W Bay & Monkseaton 5 1 6 11 40 70 -30
N Shields WE 4 0 8 8 56 58 -2
Northumberland 3 1 8 7 49 65 -16
Thanks to all players for taking part and for all NLBC members who helped host the day - particularly Geoff for the scoring; Ron, Amy, Dave B, Chris & Ryan for the Green; and (as usual) Reg & Lynn for the raffle which raised £200 for Sarah's Star.
2026 DATE ANNOUNCED
The now traditional early season Northumberland 5s competition - which we will be trying to defend - will be held on Saturday 18 April 2026. A reserve date of 25 April has also been held in case of poor weather.
In common with previous years, six teams will contest the Northumberland 5s. The holders 'Northumberland' will be joined by their NLBC clubmates 'Linskill' together with North Shields WE, Percy, Whitley Bay & Monkseaton and Willington Quay.
With a maximum of 30 players per club there are plenty of opportunities to get an early season competitive outing before the league seasons get underway. Best of luck everyone.
CAMPIONI CAMPIONI OLE OLE OLE!
Northumberland Linskill BC has won the 2025 Northumberland 5s!
It happened - at the third time of asking Northumberland Linskill managed to come out on top.
Played on Saturday 26 April, on what was a lovely Spring day. the 2025 'Fives' competition again comprised teams from Percy, Whitley & Monkseaton, North Shields WE and Willlington Quay bowling clubs together with two teams ('Northumberland' and 'Linskill') from hosts Northumberland Linskill.
The morning saw Pairs and Triples matches with each team playing three 6-end matches against randomly drawn opposition. In the Pairs the honours were taken by Willington Quay with three wins and 6 points, closely followed by North Shields WE with two wins (4 pts). Meanwhile in the Triples it was Percy that led the way with Carol, Tracey and Amy gaining three wins (6 pts), closely followed by Whitley & Monkseaton (5 pts).
As a result, by the lunchbreak we had tied leaders on 8 points - Whitley & Monkseaton and Percy - with Willington Quay close behind on 7 pts.
The afternoon session comprised Singles and 'Fours' - again played over three 6-end games per team. The leading singles player was our own Tom Manuel (Linskill) with two wins and a draw (5 pts), while Kevin Brown (Northumberland), North Shields WE and Willington Quay all took two wins (4 pts).
While the games were played concurrently, when the Singles scores were added to the Pairs and Triples, the leaders were Willington Quay on 11 pts, but North Shields WE and 'Northumberland' were close behind on 10 pts. So the 'Fours' would decide the outcome - and it took a superb performance from the Northumberland Four of Ron Dunton, Keith Howard, Reg Milne and Lynne O'Keefe to clinch the title. They won all of their matches with a combined aggregate of 28-7 meaning the Northumberland total of 16 points could only be bettered by Willington Quay; however, their two wins weren't enough and so the Shield came home!
The final positions were:
Northumberland 16 pts
Willington Quay 15 pts
North Shields WE & Percy 12 pts
Whitley Bay & Monkseaton 11 pts
Linskill 6 pts
Thanks to all clubs and players who made it another excellent day, plus thanks also to all the organisers - especially Neil M (club liaison/communication), Geoff C (scoring & technical stuff), Ryan T (for helping Geoff on the day), and Reg M & Lynne (raffle). Happily we also raised £185 for our chosen charity, the Ellis Lake Foundation (see ellislakefoundation.co.uk for more information, it's a great cause).
And one final note .... Get In, we won
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2024
Congratulations to Percy Bowling Club - winners of the 2024 Northumberland Fives. For a full report please see the 'News' section of this website.
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2023
Willington Quay win the inaugural Northumberland Fives.
Congratulations to Willington Quay who walked away with the Winners Shield from the inaugural Northumberland Fives. A strong performance across both the morning and afternoon sessions saw them crowned (topical - there is a Coronation coming) as narrow but deserved winners.
We were blessed with good weather as initial overcast conditions gave way to warm sunshine – and it didn’t rain – enabling the six competing teams to enjoy a great day. Talking of which, they were: Northumberland, Linskill (both, coincidentally from Northumberland Linskill – we did organise it after all), Percy, Whitley Bay Monkseaton, North Shields West End and Willington Quay,
The morning session comprised Pairs and Triples with Percy performing strongly and achieving 10 points by winning all their Triples and two of their Pairs. Willington Quay were just behind on 8 points (two wins from each format) with Northumberland on 6 points. Notable ‘local’ performances came from a 16-1 win for the Linskill pair of George & Geoff, and two strong Triples wins from Neil, Sean and Chris.
It was still all to play for in the afternoon and remained undecided until the final bowls had been, err, bowled. Percy were unable to keep up their strong showing from the morning and could only add a further 4 points to their score, as could Northumberland. Coming up hard on the rails were Linskill with 4 points from their ‘Four’ (John T, George, Geoff and Kevin) and a stunning three wins out of three (yielding 6 points) for Super Tony Hall in the singles. However, consistency was key (get it?) for Willington Quay who added a further 7 points taking their total to 15, meaning a 1 point overall victory ahead of Percy and Linskill.
Thanks to all teams who took part in a great competition in which all players bowled well, the points were evenly spread across the day and no team dominated.
Thanks must also go to the individuals who made it happen.
Ron Dunton – for the initial idea and inspiration and for the prizes for the ‘Jack Attack’; Neil for the communications, liaison with other clubs and his overall leadership; Geoff for the most high-tech scoring system to have ever been used in a North Tyneside (probably Northumberland, possibly national) bowls competition; Keith for organising the winners shield; John T and Dave K for the additional food; Michael for his photography; Keith and Lynn for organising the refreshments; and to all members who helped set up and who contributed to a great opening to the season.
We’re all already looking forward to next year’s event where we’ll try and bring the shield home.
The Inaugural Northumberland Park Fives
The Northumberland Park 5s is an annual season opening invitation event designed to bring together local bowling clubs for a day of camaraderie and competition.
The inaugural event took place in April 2023, with 6 teams and more than 50 bowlers in attendance. The day was an outstanding success and a credit to the organisers within Northumberland Linskill BC.
The competition takes part over the course of a single day with each team competing in a round robin of singles, doubles, triples and fours matches, each over 6 ends. The scoring system comprises of 2 points for a win, 1 for a draw and 0 for a loss. In the event of an end of tournament points tie, shot difference is taken into account. In the event of a tie on both points and shot difference then a single end of 5 players with 1 bowl each is played.
The 2023 competition was very competitive and resulted in a very close finish with Willington Quay beating team Linskill by a single point to take the victory. We would like to extent our thanks and appreciation to all of the clubs and members competing including North Shields West End BC, Whitley Bay & Monkseaton BC, Percy BC and Willington Quay BC.
Next years competition will take place in April 2024.