Hockey

Thirsk’s men’s first team were already four games unbeaten going into the match with Bradford and despite being under early pressure Thirsk struck first via Dan Lawson.

Sam Taylor doubled their Lead and Sam Gardiner then set up Paul Doyle for the third. Bradford pushed but a Nick Fox pass found Ollie Hill to slot home the fourth and final goal in a great victory.

The second team were in prolific form against Harrogate and dominated in a 22-0 victory with goals from Arthur Hunt (9), Mark Robinson (4), Tom Westgate (3), Oliver Houseman (2), Andrew Young, Richard Taylor, Harry Goodall and Trevor Bosomworth.

The third team played twice and first up was Harrogate where they drove into a 3-1 lead at half-time and then added two more in the second half to win 5-1.

In the second game against Ben Rhydding, Thirsk had to reshuffle their pack when Liam Shannon replaced keeper Will after he had pulled his back.

Shannon played very well and the team in front of him passed themselves into a 6-0 lead by half-time.

They added three before Ben Rhydding scored twice but the game ended in an excellent 11-2 victory for Thirsk.

The Ladies second team were in action against a strong Barnsley side that started the game well.

This culminated in a short-corner, which they converted to take the lead. Despite excellent performances from Helen King and Beth Harrison-Wright in goal Thirsk could not capitalise on some good play and Barnsley snuck another goal to win 2-0.

Indoor Bowls

Durham and District Inter Club Triples League

FERRYHILL IBC secured the league title with an 8-0 home victory over neighbours Spennymoor.

Having all but secured the title in their last game the home side made several changes but were still able to pull off a maximum points win.

Spennymoor put up a stubborn resistance and in fact at the tenth end there were only seven shots between the teams. From there on however matters went downhill with Spennymoor scoring on only two of the last five ends.

Graham Black for the visitors kept his rink in contention with some excellent shots but succumbed to the pressure eventually losing by six shots.

The home rink skipped by B Johnstone were in great touch and were winners by 17 shots and J Gleghorn was the other winner by four shots picking up eight shots from the last five ends. Final scores: J Gleghorn 16-12 H Hall, B Johnstone 25-8 C Bowden, R Jefferson 13-7 G Black.

The final match of the season paired home side Durham with Gt Aycliffe with the home side running out 6-2 winners.

Durham skip A Pratt edged home by one shot in a close game, Jim Taylor won by eight shots and in the process dropped six shots on one end which could have been costly. D McDonald for Aycliffe skipped his rink to a six shot victory to give the visitors two points to take home. Final scores: A Pratt 10-9 P Whittaker, Barkess 8-14 D McDonald.

Fishing

Witton Castle Lakes

THE first week of the season at Witton Castle Lakes was a busy one, even without the promised warmer weather.

Conditions on Monday and Wednesday were particularly bad, however, a total of 78 visiting anglers came through the gates and enjoyed a very busy week returning an astounding rod average of over ten fish.

Many anglers made double figure bags and the 15 fish limit was reached by a number of them, most of who were new to the lakes; J. Maguire, D. Elsdon, D. Jones and S. Nezlins to name just a few.

Good size fish in the above 5-6lb range were prevalent too with T. Ross claiming the biggest fish of the week with a lovely 6.5lb rainbow.

Blood worm has continued to perform well, alongside olive damsels and olive zonkers with the black and green nomad showing success late in the week.

The lakes lodge also has a new and extensive stock of locally ties flies for sale - flies that we know catch fish on our lakes which are very reasonably priced.

The second weekend remained busy, which is of particular note as it’s the also opening weekend for all the local reservoir fisheries.

It has also been nice to welcome many new faces, paying the lakes a visit and enjoying their sport early in the season, especially on Tuesday when we had a good show of 18 anglers taking advantage of a respite in the bad weather.