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.