GRAHAM LANE ended the dominance of defending champion Roy Crowther to win the Flowfit Ludlow and District Bowls League Veterans Competition for the first time at Burway Bowling Club.

With a field of 13, there was almost a shock in the first round as Crowther, looking for a fourth straight win, found himself 10-0 down against Ken Willis but battled back brilliantly to edge a 21-20 victory.

Semi-final number one saw Bromfield's Clive Rushton take on Ludlow Castle's Lane. The game started very evenly but once Lane took a lead of 9-8 he kicked on again and was soon 17-8 up within five ends. Rushton got two shots back but Lane scored two more twos to record a convincing 21-10 win.

The other last-four encounter was between defending Crowther and Stokesay's Laurie Jones and Jones started much the better and found himself 11-7 up. Crowther, on his home green, soon got back in the game once he won the jack back and was quickly in front 15-11. Jones scored two more shots but Crowther hit three straight twos to comfortably win 21-13.

This set up a Burway/Ludlow Castle final as Crowther looked to win the trophy for a fourth straight year. To do so, he had to start on -2 due to being a home bowler but he was absolutely blown away by a rampant Lane who was leading well throughout and stormed into a 15-0 lead.

Crowther tried to get back into the game and bowled some decent shots but Lane, who had bowled extremely well throughout the day, got himself over the finishing line by registering an excellent 21-5 win to deservedly win the competition for the first time.

Results- First Round: Clive Rushton 21 Dave Davies 6; Lillian Payne 21 Tony Partridge 19; Lawrence Rogers 21 Mike Mansell 18; Graham Lane 21 Tony Cowdale 16; Roy Crowther 21 Ken Willis 20

Quarter Finals: Clive Rushton 21 Lillian Payne 14; Graham Lane 21 Lawrence Rogers 4; Roy Crowther 21 Mike Weston 5; Laurie Jones 21 Graham Haddon 16

Semi Finals: Graham Lane 21 Clive Rushton 10; Roy Crowther 21 Laurie Jones 13

Final: Graham Lane 21 Roy Crowther 5

Burway Bowling Club hosted the Flowfit Ludlow and District Bowls League Juniors Competition for 2016 with only three players taking part.

The trio took part in a round-robin Juniors tournament with Harry Parsonage being awarded the trophy.

All of the players play for the Corve and were Harry and Jack Parsonage and Jordan Woodfield. The Parsonage brothers took each other on in the first game and it looked like an upset might be on the cards as Harry found himself 18-17 down. He battled back well though and edged a 21-18 victory over his big brother to keep the family bragging rights.

Game two saw Jack play Jordan and Jack's experience on Burway Green No. 2 came in very handy as he won comfortably 21-2. This gave Jack a chance of winning the competition if Harry lost to Jordan in the final game but Harry was in no mood to be defeated and won 21-6 to win the trophy for the first time.

A spokesman for the committee of Flowfit Ludlow and District Bowls said: “We would like to thank Burway Bowling Club for hosting the competition and providing food and drink throughout the day.

“Special thanks to all players who took part and supported the competition throughout and to everyone who marked cards and taped ends.”