MELBOURN continue to improve their league position with another win, this time against Balsham. On rink one, Peter Dodds started steadily with a small lead for the first half before Mick Manning asked for a long end and he started to gain control, buildi

MELBOURN continue to improve their league position with another win, this time against Balsham.

On rink one, Peter Dodds started steadily with a small lead for the first half before Mick Manning asked for a long end and he started to gain control, building a lead of 13 shots.

Dodds' rink managed to make a small comeback to lose by eight shots.

Geoff Bridger's rink played a close game with only a couple of shots in it until dropping a four on the 14th end and finishing two down, 17-15.

Rink three, skipped by Rod Sell, stormed off to a lead of 19 shots before Balsham were able to reply with a single on the 11th end.

The last eight ends were shared to finish at 24-8.

Young skip Robert Dodds also led his rink to a convincing 28-9 win, allowing Balsham to score on only five end as Melbourn ran out comfortable 81-56 winners to take five of the seven points.

Meldreth ran out narrow 67-65 winners in their derby match against Melbourn.

Mick Kernaghan (Melbourn) and Ken Lee were in opposition on rink one going to a drawn position on the 14th end, Kernaghan's rink pulled back a small deficit, and they went on to win by six shots.

A similar state of affairs existed on the next rink, with Rod Sell and Bill Parkin swapping the lead throughout the match before Melbourn's Sell won by a single shot.

Marge Rogers was behind on the third rink against Meldreth's Sean Young for 12 ends, then managed to hold them to nine shots for five ends and scoring a six on the 14th to set up a six-shot win.

On the fourth rink Muriel Cooper was unable to hold on to a very strong Meldreth rink skipped by Malcolm Chapman after dropping a six on the third end despite winning seven ends, they finished 15 shots down. Melbourn managed to win on three of the four rinks but still lost by two shots.

In other games, Melbourn went down 68-37 against Histon in the Foxton League and 37-35 against Brooklands in the Mixed Business House League.

Meanwhile in friendly games Riverain were beaten 73-65, while Melbourn and Willian shared the spoils with a 72-72 draw.

- Eternit Bowls Club held their annual John Ash Memorial Open Triples competition recently.

A total of 24 teams took part from local clubs, some travelling from London and Fordham.

A lot of the games were close, but the final was between a team from Wanstead in London and Letchworth Bowls Club, played over eight ends.

After five ends it was a draw with four each. Nerves got the better of Letchworth and Wanstead went into the lead to make the final score 8-4.

The winners received £100 prize money plus trophies, while the runners-up collected £45 plus trophies.

The winners also keep a large trophy donated by the Ash family for a year.

A donation was made to the Rosie and Queen Elizabeth (King's Lynn) Maternity Hospitals.

Callum, John Ash's grandson, was born prematurely weighing 1lb 9ozs and was cared for by both these hospitals. Eternit Bowls Club felt it was fitting to make this their charity this year.