Liberty Trophy v Cumbria (Report)17/12/22

In our Liberty opener the lads started there campaign with a rare home tie against Cumbria at Hartlepool. We met each other at the same stage last year when Cumbria came out on top by four shots, this time around the lads turned things around and gained revenge with a sixteen shot win. There was a late change to the selected line up, Hartlepool’s Gary R Smith withdrew so club mate Mark Higgins made his county skipping debut. Across the green it was a three rink split, the standout win came from Hartlepool’s Marc Squirrell who steered Aycliffe’s Jordan Harston and Squirrell club mate’s Conrad Morrison and Glenn Skipp to a 32-13 win over John Baird. The Viper’s Paul Hartley turned around an early deficit to beat Stephen Farish 22-18 and another Viper David Bolt ground out a 20-16 win over Ian Gallagher. The three losing Durham rinks battled well and on another day would have recorded wins. Hartlepool’s Paul Mosley went down 17-14 to Stu Irwin, another Poolie Andrew Kirtland missed on the last end against Ken Johnstone 18-16 and club mate Mark Higgins dropped a last end five to finish 23-18 down against Stuart Airey. The lads will face Lincolnshire next on January 14 mostly likely on a neutral green in the York area.