ALTON Social Bowling Club’s Margaret Holden, winner of the England Senior Pairs title with Lesley Johnson, was back at Leamington Spa last week, this time partnered by Hazel Marke in the England National Pairs.

Drawn against Dorset in Wednesday’s first round, the Social pair, representing Hampshire, were in control from the start and ran out comfortable 34-8 winners.

It was a different story in the second round on Thursday. Social faced Cumbria and struggled to get a foothold on the game, finding themselves 10 shots adrift after five ends.

Over the next 10 ends, the Social pair chipped away at the deficit to get within one shot at one stage. However, Cumbria pulled away again and completed a four-shot win, 22-18.

Cumbria eventually reached the semi-finals where they lost 20-15 to Wiltshire. Cambridgeshire became champions, beating Wiltshire 24-8 in Saturday’s final.

Back at Alton, the two-wood triple of Brian Scowcroft (skip), Gary Johnson and Derek Ham just failed to reach the Bowls Hampshire semi-finals as a timely glide from Cove skip Carl Taylor wrecked Social’s game-winning position.

In the Basingstoke Fours League, Social entertained closest rivals Basingstoke Town. Social, the league championship within their grasp, made a poor start from which they never really recovered. Two rinks down, it was left to Mark Fyfield, Basa Smith, John Fensom and Ian Urquhart to rescue a vital point for Social who now need six points from their final two matches.

Alton Social recorded a fine 4 points to 1 win against Oakley to consolidate second position in the Basingstoke Triples League.

Social’s Whitchurch League team are still finding points hard to come by, losing 31/2-11/2 to St. Mary Bourne Hawks and leaving them a half-point from safety.