Paul Whellams skipped the four to National success

Wanstead Central’s Mitch Brenner warmed up for Saturday’s big County Singles final showdown, by booking a second visit to the National Finals in Worthing.

Wanstead Central’s Mitch Brenner warmed up for Saturday’s big County Singles final showdown, by booking a second visit to the National Finals in Worthing.

Brenner faces Eric Ovel from Falcon Bowls Club in the county final at Essex County BC in Westcliff, a competition where he had already secured a Worthing space.

But on Tuesday night he teamed up with Maureen Norgate, Lesley Cowell and skip Paul Whellams for the area final of the National Mixed Fours competition.

They had to travel into the backyard of the powerful Romford team of Myra Smith, Rebecca Smith, Richard Bolton and Steve Mitchinson, but that did not seem to phase them as they put in an excellent performance.

Despite their home advantage, the Romford team were always playing second fiddle and in the end, the Central foursome got home by 22-16.

They now progress to the last 16 of the competition which takes place on August 21 down on the south coast.

Central’s involvement in the London & Southern Counties Shield came to an abrupt halt last Thursday when they were put to the sword by Essex County in the fourth round.

Such was their opponents’ dominance, they won all four rinks contested, two home and two away, and the match was conceded after 16 ends.

There was better news in the preliminary round of the Jubilee Trophy where Central progressed to the semi-final stage with a battling victory over Woodford after both sides won their home legs.

Over at Woodford, Mick Bird, Brian Jones, Terry Lichkin and skip Bob Druce kept things close before going down 20-15 to Les Corder’s team, but that was more than made up for back at Nutter Lane.

There, Steve Welsh’s team of Peter Norgate, Lou Jacobs and Colin Foster were too good for Keith Riley and his boys and got home 22-11 to make it 37-31 overall.