New leaders in a thriller of a season

New league leaders and Richmond find a win!

From what we have seen so far the Manchester Premier League is going to have a thriller of a season. Once again we have a change in the league leadership and it is that close its likely that further changes will occur.

Currently Sale Excelsior, Lloyds and Tonge are averaging the same number points per game and there is only a slight difference in the match totals. With a game in hand Tonge could easily go top and with Tonge and Lloyds at home and Sale away next week then a change in positions is more than likely.

The new league leaders, Sale Excelsior, nearly achieved the perfect home performance against King and Queen. Craig Gant led the way and although King and Queen battled for every point they could win two of the games. This meant that Sale claimed nine points which were enough to go top.

This was after Tonge and Lloyds had a match that will be classed in the ‘thriller’ category. Tonge started the stronger and claimed three of the first four games with Jim Derby keeping his unbeaten record. The second half of the match belonged to the visitors as Mike Geraghty kept his unbeaten lead at the top of the average table. In the end just four points separated the teams.

Nursery and South Manchester occupy the fifth and sixth places in the league and they had a close game at Nursery’s Stockport green. Dave Walker helped give Nursery a strong start to the game before South Manchester launched a comeback with Mark Sutton and Carl Armitage winning well. Nursery could claim five of the eight games and eight points and the gap between both clubs has closed to just the single point.

So far this season only one club had failed to register a victory. That changed on Wednesday as the Richmond celebrated a ‘can’t be any narrower’ win at Tottington. Darren Evans led the way for the visitors as they claimed three of the first four games. Craig Brennan was the star in a Tottington fight back that almost claimed the win. Just a single point was all that separated them at the finish of the match.

What can we expect next week?  The games, hopefully in better weather, see Nursery head to Warrington to play King and Queen, Lloyds ar at home to Tottington, South Manchester welcome the league leaders to their Levenshulme green and Tonge will be hoping to gain points at home to Richmond.

Will Mike Geraghty keep his lead at the top of the averages table? The last man standing is now between just Mike, Jim Derby and Gary Ellis. There is so much going on in the league it will be hard to predict what will happen next!

If you want to see all the results, scores and tables then please click here

About Steve Davies 168 Articles
Throughout his bowling career Steve has always supported the admin side of the game as well as a keen player of the game. As a club secretary, association secretary, county delegate on the BCGBA (National Governing Body) Management Committee, Media Officer for the BCGBA, Merseyside champion in 2002 and Merseyside County President (2014-15) Steve has always been keen to promote the game especially through the broadcast of the game on TV or Internet. Steve set up the LIVE BOWLS YouTube channel which became the Bowls Observer channel and, through the LDBA, runs national competitions. Seeing an avenue to report on and promote the game Steve set up the Bowls Observer on-line magazine.