Bowls by Mike Wakelam

After defeating his wife Bev 21-19 in one of his qualifying games Mike Pritchard crowned a fine performance to defeat Barry Evans to reach the finals of the Tony Pagett Memorial Singles.

Other qualifiers were Pritchard's club mate Paul Hemming who amazingly won all his games 21-14, Ray Broadfield and Northern hope Lee Lawton.

There were some shock defeats for former winners of the £3,000 Tipton and Coseley Buidling Society Open at West Bromwich Glynn Cookson, Richard Brittan and Craig Barker.

Latest qualifiers were Darren Smith, Kevin Handley, Joe Callan, Ronnie Gales, David East, Chris Jenkins Graeme Dulson and Paul Evans.

Already champions of the Cookley Indoor League DMBEC BC C' showed there was no love lost when they thrashed their A' side 27-13 with the trio of Lowe, Southall and Berry winning 21-2.

Talbot Old Boys keep the White Horse in the relegation zone winning 22-14.

Tallboats continue to push for third place after beating Woodman Saltwells 17-9. At present Stourbridge Labour are just third by two points after narrowly beating the Swan 13-12.

Cradley Labour are three points clear at the top of Division Two after a massive 27-7 victory over Coombs Wood.

Dudley Sports ladies returned to form beating bottom of the table Netherton Cons B' 24-5 and Cradley Libs A' lost to their B' outfit 20-17.

Black Country outfit Baggeridge were disappointed in 2006 to finish runners up to Nomads in the Hadley Indoor Sunday League but have gone one better this time around taking the title with a superb 39-22 win over Bearwood Sports Eric Hall/Joe Cooke 18-5. Nomads finished second after a narrow 39-29 win over the Old Cross.

64 players from all over the Midlands will be chasing a first prize of £1,000 in the first ever Beeches Open at Great Barr this weekend were the favourite will be the 2006 top midlands player Andrew Spragg from Derbyshire.

A memorial challenge bowls match is to take place at the Woodman Brockmoor BC on Sunday March 25 from 10-30am start in memory of Fred Withey between a Central Midlands select team and Dudley Dell.

Sad news for local bowlers comes with the passing away of Billy Gibbons well known on the Black Country bowls scene. A member of the West Brom Supporters B.C. Bill represented his county on many occasions and won the county merit in 1959.