Darlington bowlers have had mixed fortunes at the start of the autumn programme which includes the Denny Cup All England inter-club knockout men's championship involving 350 clubs across several counties and national regions.

The ladies national team championship, inclusive of hundreds of clubs playing on a demanding four-rink knockout basis, started in October and continues round by round going through to the national finals scheduled to be played at Loddon Vale in Hampshire in March 2004. Darlington successfully battled their way to the finals last year and collected the bronze medal.

The mixed four Egham Trophy All England national championships including every affiliated club in the country, is played at area and regional levels every year onwards from October over four rinks on a home and away basis.

Newton Hall Indoor bowls club representing Lancashire and the Northern Counties region in the finals last year captured the championship trophy and coveted gold medals with an outstanding team display across all rinks.

In previous years York, Cumbria, Darlington, Newcastle have featured so well in the Egham championship alongside Egham (Surrey) who founded this popular event.

In the Engham Trophy match last week Darlington beat Hartlepool over four rinks by seven shots.

Ann Anderson, Maureen Whitton, Barry Hodgson and skip Allen Moore excelled themselves with a 25-shot victory over E Kyle, A Eglintine, A Taylor and skip John Mansfield.

The Darlington four led throughout their game 4-1, 9-3 16-5 up to the 16th end then captured nine shots while losing only two and finishing 18 shots to the good.

Dorothy Donald, Tracey Fairless, Eric Ramsdale and skip Mark Jones trailed by 3-5 at the fifth end then hit a purple patch going into the halfway stage scoring successively 3-1-1-5-3-1 without reply, while beating E Parkes, J Carson, M Parvin and skip John Wells by 21-16.

Away from home Sadie Lynch, Dulcie Harbin, Colin Young and skip John Lynch levelled the game on 11-11 after 11 ends. They finished all square on 18 against T Tweddle, D Smith, A Ward and skip Paul Hartley. A good performance from the Quakers.

Audrey Shepherd, Olive Harris, Stan Burton and skip Ken Lamb narrowly trailed by 6-9 at the halfway stage but unfortunately lost a 4-5 and two threes in the second half going down eventually by 11-27 against an in form L George, J Redpath and D Kilner and England international Cliff Simpson at Hartlepool.

Darlington go through to meet Sunderland or Thornaby in the next round.

Other zone fixtures include: Ashington v North Shields; Hebburn v Stanley; Eldon Newcastle v South Shields; Durham v Redcar; Great Aycliffe v Shildon; Tynedale v Concordia; Ferryhill v Houghton and last year's national champions Blackpool Newton Hall v Blackburn.

Other match scores included: J Lynch 17, A Lawton 22; A Kirtland 25, S Macintosh 9; B Metcalf 16, G Mitchell 20; T Bousfield 18, A Jobling 13; V Armstrong 13, M Dunlop 21; A Moore 10, R Richardson 27; Darlington 99, Hebburn 112 in the Durham County inter-club championships.

Darlington ladies against Sunderland. Scores: P Clark, J Winter, A Shepherd, P Wright 12, J Rodgerson 18; S Lynch, K Tinkler, O Kitching, M Bousfield 13, V Bamburgh 21; M Armstrong, V Johnson, M Whitton, a Simpson 23, M Mitchinson 13; E Mitchell, E Dunn, M White, A Anderson 29, E Pattinson 18; C Robinson, A Cairns, O Harris, J Stephenson 20, P Tizard 21; T Fairless, J Weston, D Rewcastle, D Harbin 9, M Clark 21.