No stopping Central as Fairwood are thrashed

Wanstead Central’s ladies were crowned the Albert Crabb Trophy champions after a thumping final victory over Fairwood Ladies on Saturday afternoon.

The prestigious double fours competition saw Central triumph comprehensively on both rinks to run out winners by a whopping 53-12.

The final was played at Essex County BC in Westcliff-on-Sea and it proved to be to their liking as they won the competition for the first time ever.

Central’s rink of Cheryl Rayner, Brenda Jones, Carol Cook and skip Maureen Norgate were outstanding as they stormed to a 32-3 victory.

The other Central rink of Viv Leech, Chris Buck, Janet Bird and skip Janice Fortune were also in fine form as they ran out 21-9 winners.

Such was Central’s dominance, the match was conceded after 17 ends.

Earlier in the day, Norgate just missed out on a superb double when she was pipped in the county Champion of Champions final.

In a match that could have gone either way in which nobody deserved to lose, Norgate was eventually beaten 21-20 by Judy Bohannon of Tiptree Jobserve.

In a season that promised so much, Central exited their last major competition when they slipped to a thumping defeat in the County Shield semi-final.

They could only win one of the four rinks and that came at Nutter Lane where Terry Lichkin, Colin Foster, Russell Hughes and skip Paul Whellams got over the line.

James Rippey and his team of Len Welton, Dave Baxter and Jack Butcher lost out at home, while there was even less joy over in Westcliff.

Both teams were forced to chase the game and it simply didn’t work as Charlie Butcher’s team of Mitch Brenner, John Cook and Paul Woodford, plus Colin Jones, Bob Druce, Kevin Fitzgerald and skip Lee Chaplin both crashed to defeat.

That left the final score at a hugely disappointing 90-54 to Essex County.